GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 123 
ers ; tail much less than half as long as wing, its feathers soft, narrow at 
tips, and hardly distinguishable from coverts; wing coverts and inner 
quills highly developed, folding entirely over the primaries; tarsus and 
feet heavy, with long powerful claws ; sexes very different. Adult male : 
head markings black and white; tip of crest fawn color; back pale 
brown, barred, vermiculated, and streaked with white ; under parts with 
median line dark brown and sides slaty gray spotted with white. Adult 
female: head without stripes, prevailing color pale pinkish cinnamon ; upper 
parts coarsely mottled and finely barred with black, brown, and lavender, 
and feathers with coarse white shaft streaks; chin whitish ; neck with 
lavender cape specked and bordered with black ; rest of under parts light 
cinnamon or lavender, breast and sides with black specks and shaft 
streaks. Young : similar to female, but under parts thickly spotted. 
Wing : 6.70, tail 2.28, bill .53. 
Distribution. Resident in arid Upper Sonoran and Transition zones of 
western Texas, southern parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and northern 
Mexico. 
Nest. — On the ground, partly concealed by grass. Eggs : white. 
Food. — Grasshoppers, weevils, caterpillars, lame, small beans, prickly 
pear and other seeds, and great numbers of small bulbs. 
In the rugged little ranges rising from the deserts of western 
Texas, southern New Mexico, and Arizona, you find the Mearns 
quail, the United States form of the Massena quail, from the zone 
of junipers, oaks, and nut pines extending up among the big yellow 
pines, but always where there is plenty of grass or scattered brush 
for cover. When camping in its country we would often hear a 
soft chr-r-r-r-r from the grass, and after locating it start for the 
spot, only to hear the quavering notes repeated just as far beyond. 
After another attempt the voice would be still across the gulch — 
then back of us — till finally we gave up in despair, for at all times 
the ventriloquial call deceived us. Fruitless hours may be spent 
trying to tramp up the birds, and when you do find them you are 
looking for something else, and they burst from the grass at your feet 
with a stiff-winged roar and are around the hill out of sight or have 
dropped into a thicket before you have recovered from your surprise. 
While we were in the Chisos Mountains, Texas, Mr. Fuertes made 
the interesting discovery that the quail under excitement spread 
their crest laterally, as he has depicted it in the plate. In describ¬ 
ing it he says : “Just after sunrise, while I was getting ready for 
the day’s work, a cock Massena quail ran up beside the little knoll 
where I had placed my bed. He ran by me within fifteen or twenty 
feet, at first apparently not noticing me. When I turned to watch 
him he seemed to become more alert, quickened his trot, compressed 
his plumage, and raised his head to its highest, as a guinea hen will 
do when slightly alarmed. But accompanying this action he dis¬ 
played his curious crest in a peculiar and striking way. Instead of 
raising it as a bob-white would have done, he spread it out laterally, 
