ORTYX PECTORALIS, Gould. 
Black-breasted Partridge. 
Specific Character. 
Ort. lined angustd albafront ali super oculos et per nucham duct a ; guld alba ; pectore nigris ; 
cibdomine, lateribus et crisso, cervinis. 
Crown of the head and back of the neck blackish brown; a narrow stripe of white crosses the 
forehead, passes over the eye, and extends down the back of the neck below the occiput; 
ear-coverts, sides of the neck and chest, black ; throat white ; abdomen, flanks and under 
tail-coverts fawn-colour; the tips of the feathers on the lower part of the flanks spotted 
with black and white ; the upper part of the back, scapularies. and shoulders chestnut- 
brown ; wing-coverts, tertiaries, back and upper tail-coverts greyish brown ; all the feathers 
of the upper surface margined and speckled with very light fawn-colour, which on the 
secondaries assumes the form of distinct bars; in addition to these marks, the scapularies, 
secondaries, back and rump are minutely freckled with brown ; the strongly contrasted 
markings giving all the upper surface a bespangled appearance; primaries brownish grey; 
tail-feathers bluish grey, some of them freckled on the margin with buff; bill black; feet 
flesh-white. 
Total length, 8 inches ; bill , i; wing , 4 ; tail, 24 ; tarsi, It ; middle toe and nail, ly 
Ortyx pectoralis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part X. p. 182; Gray and Mitch. Gen. of 
Birds, vol. iii. p. 514, Ortyx, sp. 6. 
This well-defined species of Ortyx is a native of Mexico, but what particular province it inhabits I am unable 
to say: it is a smaller bird than 0. Cubanensis, and differs from that species in the total absence of any marks 
on the flanks and abdomen, which are of uniform fulvous. It is a rare bird in the European collections, but 
there is a fine example in the Museum of the Earl of Derby, and a tolerably good one in that of Leyden : it 
is from these individuals that my figures were taken. The Earl of Derby’s bird was living in his fine Aviary 
in 1840. 
Habitat. Mexico. 
The figures represent males of the natural size; I am unacquainted with the female. 
