43 ^ 
GAME-BIRDS. 
neck blue covered with red warts. Like its allies, the common turkey is 
polygamous, the female only attending to the duties of incubation, while the male, 
in addition to neglecting such labours, is even reported to destroy the eggs and 
young chicks. Mr. Brown, writing of these turkeys, observes, that “ I am of the 
belief that they raise two broods of young in a season, as I have seen almost all 
sizes in the masting-season (October), when they congregate in large numbers in 
the canons to feed on a small bitter acorn, common to the canons and parks of 
Southern Arizona and southward. I have seen their roosting-places at night, in 
sycamore trees; I also saw one in an oak-grove on the side of a hill, but they 
appear more to favour the canons. 
. . Distinguished from their Old World allies by the tooth-like 
American s> _ ^ 
Partridg-es processes on the edge of the lower mandible, these birds constitute a 
and Quails. se p ara q e subfamily (Odontophorince ),represented by eleven genera,con¬ 
taining nearly fifty species; the 
largest form being about the size 
of the common partridge, while 
the smallest is inferior in size to 
the migratory quail. In the 
majority of this group the bill is 
stout and grouse-like, and most 
have a longer or shorter crest. 
Of the three large partridges 
( Dendrortyx ) inhabiting Central 
America, from Southern Mexico 
to Costa Rica, little need be said. 
They are rather handsome birds 
(especially D. macrurus), with 
tails as long as the wing, or 
nearly so. The scaled partridges 
( Callipepla ) are easily recognised 
by their short crests, and grey 
and black-margined plumage, 
producing a beautiful scaled ap¬ 
pearance. They are met with in 
the south-western United States 
and Mexico. Specially attrac¬ 
tive is the mountain-partridge 
(Oreortyx pictus) from the West¬ 
ern States of North America, with 
the crest composed of two very 
long black feathers; the head, 
neck, mantle, and breast being 
grey; the rest of the upper-parts 
olive-brown; the throat and fore-part of the neck deep chestnut margined with white ; 
and the sides and flanks similarly coloured, but irregularly barred with black and 
white. One of the handsomest and most familiar members of the group is the 
CALIFORNIAN QUAIL. 
