CALLIPEPLA CALIFORNIO A. 
Californian Partridge. 
Specific Character. 
Call, capite crista plena nigra, super rostrum, acclinata ornato ; gula nigra albo circumdata, 
collo postice et ad latera plumbeo, singulis plumis nigro marginatis , et ad apicem albo 
guttatis i abdomine superiore fulvo, medio castaneo, singulis plumis lunula nigra apicali. 
Male. —Forehead straw-colour, with a very fine fine of black down the centre of each feather; 
throat deep velvety black, encircled from the posterior angle of the eye with a broad fine 
of white ; across the head and passing down behind the eye another fine of white, bounded 
posteriorly by black; occiput umber-brown ; crest deep velvety black; feathers of the 
back and sides of the neck lanceolate in form, and of a blue-grey bordered all round with 
black, and with a minute spot of white at the extremity of each ; back, rump, upper tail- 
and wing-coverts olive-brown; tertiaries edged with buff, narrowly on their outer webs 
and broadly on their inner ones; tail grey ; chest blue-grey; upper part of the abdomen 
rich buff, centre of the abdomen chestnut, all the feathers with a crescent-shaped line of 
black at the extremity; flank-feathers olive-brown, with a line of buffy white down the 
centre, and a second broader, oblique fine of buff on the outer web of each; under tail- 
coverts sandy buff, with a broad stripe of greyish brown down the centre of each ; bill 
black; feet grey. 
Female. —Forehead dirty white, streaked with brown ; crest brownish grey; feathers of the 
abdomen buffy white, with a crescent-shaped mark of black at the tip; feathers of the 
sides and back of the neck less decidedly marked ; under surface destitute of the buff and 
chestnut markings which are so conspicuous in the male. 
Total length, 9^ inches; bill, ±; wing, 4j ; tail, 4; tarsi, ly; middle toe and nail, lx. 
Crested Partridge of New California, La Per. Voy., vol. i. p. 201. 
Perdix Californica. Lath. Ind. Qrn. Supp., pi. lxii.—Temm. Pig. et Gall., p. 798. 
Californian Quail, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., p. 281.—lb. Gen. Hist., vol. viii. p. 328. 
Tetrao Calif ornica, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pi. 345. 
Ortyx Californica, Steph. Cont, of Shaw’s Gen. Zook, vol. xi. p. 384.— Less. 111. de Zool., 
texte de pk 52.—Aud. Birds of Am., vol. iv. pi. 418. 
Ortyx Californiais, Less. Cent, de Zook, p. 188. pk 60.—Benn. Gard. and Menag. of Zook 
Soc., vol. ii. p. 29- 
Coturnix Californica, Vieilk, 2nd Edit, du Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxv. p. 259.—II). 
Ency. Meth. Orn., Part I. p. 367- 
Ortyx Californica ? Jard. and Selb. Ilk Orn., vol. i. Gen. Ortyx. 
Lophortyx Californica, Bonap. List of Birds of Eur. and Am., p. 42.—G. R. Gray, List of 
Gen. of Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 80. 
This species, which is second to no member of the group in beauty, is rendered remarkable by the peculiar 
form of the crest, which, rising in a fine point at the vertex of the head, gradually increases in breadth 
