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Volume XIII September-October, 1911 Number 5 
A HYBRID QUAIL 
By M. Iv PKCK 
WITH ONE PHOTO 
A n interesting hybrid quail, evidently Oreortyx pirtus pliiniifcrus. x 
Lophortyx ca/ifoniicus calif orninis, was secured b}' Mr. Geo. U. Peck, 
April 1, 1911, on Silves River, Harney Co., Oregon, about two miles above 
the town of Burns. The specimen is a male in high plumage, and was one of a 
small flock of quail that a man had been feeding about his place during the wdnter. 
Whether there were any other hybrids in the flock, or whether the rest were all 
(). p. p/iniiifenis, was not made out. This bird was killed, apparently, by flying 
against a telephone wire. It was mounted by Mr. Peck while fresh. A flock of 
A. r. call foni leas was .seen near the place wdiere it was secured, and according to 
Dr. Hibbard, of Burns, they are found throughout that section of the state. Dr. 
Hibbard has a mounted specimen in his collection. (). p. plimiifcnts is distributed 
rather locally through the Harney Valley, but does not seem to occur on the sur- 
rounding mountains, at least not on the upper course of the Silves. 
The following is a detailed description of this hybrid: 
Back, scapulars, and wings above deep a.sh, strongly suffused with olivaceous 
browm anteriorly, purer posteriorly; tail clear dark ash; inner edges of tertials light 
buff}’; crown and nape ashy, the former with an olive brown wash, the latter with 
obscure mesial spots of blackish and minute wavy markings of black and white; 
forehead and lores soiled whitish, the latter with fine black lines; a black super- 
ciliary stripe, continuous wdth black markings of lores; a whitish stripe above and 
behind the black, passing backward above the blackish auriculars to sides of occipi- 
tal region; chin and throat black, except a small, ill-defined area of mixed chestnut 
and black on upper throat, the black extending on sides of head to posterior angle 
of eye, and bordered all around by a white strijie, which is broadest on sides of 
