QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 
223 
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, pore 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 XLVIL Fig. 2. 
Arct. Zool. 318. No 185 Catesb. App. p. 12 Virginian Quail, Turt. Syst. p. 
460. — Maryland Quail, Ibid. — La perdrix d’Amerique, Briss. i. 230. — Buff. ii. 447. 
ORTYX VIRGINIANUS. — Bonaparte.* 
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, Aud. i. p. 388. pi. 76. 
This w T ell 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 Partridges, 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 cultivated 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 5 and Mr Audubon 
remarks, “ they walk with ease on the branches.” In all these habits they shew 
their alliance to the perching Gattince, and a variation from the true Partridge. 
The same naturalist also remarks, that they occasionally perform partial 
