224 QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 



wings, plain dusky, all the feathers, as well as those of the 

 coverts, tipt with white ; shoulder of the wing, deep dusky 

 brown, exterior quill edged with white ; tail-coverts, long, 

 reaching within three-quarters of an inch of the tip, and of a 

 pale rust colour, spotted with black ; tail, rounded, deep black, 

 ending in a bar of bright ferruginous, crossed with a narrow 

 waving line of black, and tipt with whitish ; belly, pure white ; 

 sides, barred with dusky ; legs and feet, a very pale ashy 

 green ; sometimes the whole thighs and sides of the vent are 

 barred with dusky and white, as in the figure on the plate. 



The female differs in being more obscure in her colours ; 

 the white on the back being less pure, and the black not so 

 deep. 



QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. {Perdix Virginianus.) 



PLATE XLVII.-Fig. 2. 



Arct. Zool. 318, No. 185. — Catesb. App. p. 12. — Virginian Quail, Turt. Syst. p. 

 4G0. — Maryland Quail, Ibid. — La Perdrix dAmerique, Briss. i. 230. — Buff. 



ORTYX VIRGINIANUS. — Bonapakte. * 



Perdix Virginiana, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 650. — Colin Colgnicui, Temm. Pig. et 

 Gall. iii. p. 436. — Perdix Borealis, Temm. Pig. et Gall. Ind. p. 735. — Ortyx 

 Borealis, Steph. Cont. Shaw's Zool. xi. p. 377. — Perdix (Ortyx) Virginiana, 

 Bonap. Synop. p. 124. — The Virginian Partridge, And. i. p. 388, pi. 76. 



This well-known bird is a general inhabitant of North 

 America, from the northern parts of Canada and Nova Scotia, 

 in which latter place it is said to be migratory, to the extremity 



* The genus Ortyx was formed by Mr Stephens, the continuator of 

 Shaw's Zoology, for the reception of the thick and strong-billed par- 

 tridges peculiar to both continents of the New World, and holding the 

 place there with the partridges, francolins, and quails of other countries. 

 They live on the borders of woods, among brushwood, or on the thick 

 grassy plains, and since the cultivation of the country, frequent culti- 

 vated fields. During the night they roost on trees, and occasionally 

 perch during the day ; when alarmed, or chased by dogs, they fly to the 

 middle branches ; and Mr Audubon remarks, " they walk with ease on 

 the branches." In all these habits they show their alliance to the perch- 

 ing Gallince, and a variation from the true partridge. The same 

 naturalist also remarks, that they occasionally perform partial migra- 



