2*24 
QUAIL, OR. PARTRIDGE. 
of the peninsula of Florida ; and was seen in the neighbour- 
hood of the Great Osage village, in the interior of Louisiana. 
They are numerous in Kentucky and Ohio ; Mr Pennant 
migrations, from northwest, to southeast, in the beginning of October, and 
that for a few weeks the northwestern shores of the Ohio are covered with 
Partridges. 
Their general form is robust, the bill very strong, and apparently fitted for 
a mode of feeding requiring considerable exertion, such as the digging up of 
bulbous and tuberous roots. The head is crested in all the known species, 
the feathers sometimes of a peculiar structure, the shafts bare, and the 
extremity of the webs folding on each other. The tail also exhibits different 
forms ; in the more typical species short, as in the Partridges, and in others 
becoming broad and long, as seen in the Indian genus Crax, or the 
more extensively distributed genus Penelope. Considerable additions to the 
number of species have been lately made. Those belonging to the northern 
continent, and consequently coming under our notice, are two, discovered by 
Mr Douglas, — Ortyx picta, described in the last volume of the Linnean 
Transactions , and O. Douglasii, so named by Mr Vigors, in honour of its 
discoverer, and also described with the former. To these may be added, the 
lovely O. Californica, which, previous to this expedition, and the voyage of 
Captain Beechey to the coast of California, was held in the light of a dubious 
species. I have added the descriptions of these new species from Mr Douglas’s 
account in the Transactions of the Linnean Society. 
Ortyx picta. — Douglas. 
Male Bill, small, black; crown of the head, and breast, lead colour; 
crest, three linear black feathers, two inches long ; irides, bright hazel red ; 
throat, purple red, bounded by a narrow, white line, forming a gorget above 
the breast, and extending round the eye, and root of the beak ; back, scapulars, 
and outer coverts of the wings, fuscous brown ; belly, bright tawny, or rusty 
colour, waved with black ; the points of the feathers white ; quills, thirteen 
feathers, the fourth the longest ; under coverts, light brown, mixed with a rusty 
colour ; tail, twelve feathers, of unequal length, rounded, lead colour, but less 
bright than the breast or crown of the head ; tarsi, one inch and a quarter long, 
reddish ; toes, webbed nearly to the first joint. 
Female Head and breast, light fuscous brown ; the middle of the feathers, 
black ; crest, half an inch long ; throat, whitish, or light gray ; belly, light gray, 
waved with black, less bright than the male ; under coverts of the tail, foxy 
red ; length, ten inches ; girth, sixteen inches ; weight, about twelve ounces ; 
flesh, brown, well-flavoured. 
From October until March, these birds congregate in vast flocks, and seem 
to live in a state of almost perpetual warfare ; dreadful conflicts ensue between the 
