122 
GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 
feathers of nape without dusky borders; belly white, unmarked. Length : 
9.50-10.00, wing 4.45-4.70, tail 4.10-4.70. 
Remarks. — The Gambel partridge may he distinguished in nearly all 
plumages by its belly markings — the male by the black patch and ab¬ 
sence of scaling; the female by chestnut flanks and absence of scales ; 
and the young by the white, wholly unmarked belly. 
Distribution. — Resident in Lower Sonoran zone from western Texas to 
southeastern California, and from southern Utah and Nevada south through 
central Sonora, Mexico. 
Nest. — A slightly lined hollow often beside a bunch of tall grass, in 
freshet drift, or occasionally under a yucca. Eggs: usually 10 to 12, 
white to huff, irregularly spotted, blotched, and clouded with brown, the 
blotches with a pinkish or purplish bloom. 
Food. — Insects, especially grasshoppers and ants ; also seeds, grain, 
mesquite beans, berries, and tender leaves and buds. 
The breeding season comes early in the valleys of the Gila and 
lower Colorado rivers. By February the deserts bloom, the aromatic 
creosote bush puts on its yellow robe, the big crimson and yellow 
cactus flowers, the fragrant evening primroses open wide, and yel¬ 
low tassels dangle from the mesquite. In the balmy spring morning 
the first sound to greet your ears is the shrill cha chad, cha chad, of 
the cock quail from his perch on the blooming mesquite, and answer¬ 
ing calls follow from up and down the valley. When the sun has 
risen higher you find the quail in pairs, hunting among the bushes 
for nesting-sites, talking in low, soft tones? the cock often bowing 
and strutting with important airs and crest low over his bill. When, 
after much careful prospecting, a nest spot is found safe from floods, 
hidden from enemies, and within daily reach of water, the birds 
settle down to home duties; and before the flowers are gone may be 
found leading about families of striped-backed chicks. The chicks 
must be guarded from a host of enemies, but the old birds are wise 
guardians, and early autumn shows large flocks of plump, nearly 
full-grown quail, always on the alert, quick to scatter, but sure to 
reassemble, calling back and forth in small piping voices till the last 
of the brood is in. Later in the season the families collect in large 
flocks, often of fifty or a hundred, and scatter in the daytime to 
feed in the open, returning at night with a roar of wings to roost in 
some dense thicket or brushy bottom-land, huddled together in a 
snug, feathery mass. 
To the pot-hunter and trapper the birds are easy prey, but with 
proper protection they increase so rapidly as to be in no danger of 
extermination. Vernon Bailey. 
GENUS CYRTONYX. 
296. Cyrtonyx montezumse mearnsi Nelson. Mearns 
Quail. 
Bill very stout; head with a full crest of soft, blended, depressed feath- 
