GALLINACEOUS BIRDS 
GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. Order X. GALLING 
GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, ETC. Family TETRAONIDAE 
The members of this family are birds of robust form, subdued (not brightly 
colored) plumage, comparatively short legs and necks; the tarsi and toes are 
feathered in the Ptarmigan, the tarsi, only, feathered in the Grouse, and the 
tarsi and toes bare in the Partridges and Bob-whites. They feed upon berries, 
buds, grain and insects. 
289. Bob-white. 
Colinus virginianus virginianus. 
Range. — United States east or North Dakota and 
Texas and from the southern British Provinces to 
the Gulf coast. 
A celebrated “game bird” which has been hunt- 
ed so assiduously in New England that it is upon 
the verge of extermination, and the covers have 
to be continually replenished with birds trapped 
in the south and west. They frequent open fields, 
which have a luxuriant 
growth of weeds, or 
grain fields in the fall. 
Their nests are built 
along the roadsides, or 
beside stonewalls or 
any place affording sat- 
isfactory shelter. The 
nest is made of dried 
Whit . grasses and is arched 
. over with grass or 
overhanging leaves so as to conceal the eggs. 
They lay from ten to twenty pure white eggs 
which are very frequently nest stained when 
found. Size 1.20 x .95. Often two or three broods 
are raised in a season, but frequently one or more 
broods are destroyed by rainy weather. 
289a. Florida Bob-white. 
Colinus virginianus floridanus. 
Range. — This sub-species, which is found in the 
southern half of Florida, is very much darker 
than the northern Bob-white, and is numerously 
barred below with black. Its nesting habits and 
eggs are identical with those of the preceding. 
Bobwhite. 
Florida Bobwhite. 
Masked Bobwhite. 
289b. Texas Bob-white. Colinus virginianus texanus. 
Range.- — Texas; casually north to Kansas. A grayer variety of the Bob-white, 
The nesting habits and eggs are the same as those of the Bob-white, except that 
the eggs may average a trifle smaller. Size 1.18 x .92. 
291. Masked Bob-white. Colinus rulgwayi. 
Range. — Sonoran region of Mexico north to southern Arizona. 
The female of this species is like that of the Texan Bob-white. Their nesting 
habits and eggs are in all respects like those of the other Bob-whites. Size of 
eggs, 1.-20 x .95. 
175 
