BOB-WHITES AND QUAILS: MEARNS QUAIL 223 
over their bills, all talking at once, some calling whee-whit' or ka-wha- 
whee'-ah and others talking softly as they trotted about or chased each 
other playfully. When they caught sight of us they gave the alarm 
with a sharp quit quit. As they ran about, the black and buffy belly 
markings showed well, distinguishing the male and female at a glance. 
For ground birds there could be no better recognition mark, and where 
two species of quails occur together as they do here, and both frequent 
the brushy thickets, it is not difficult to imagine that the difference in 
belly markings may be useful in keeping flocks of a kind together. 
While those met with far from habitations may be really wild or 
“rather tame” according to their experience in life, the birds readily 
become used to people under proper conditions and afford many delight¬ 
ful experiences. On the large grounds of a school in Arizona, Mr. Gil¬ 
man found five nests. One was in the open passed by the children on 
their way to school. To protect it from the sun Mr. Gilman by daily 
advances shoved a plank toward it till the eggs were shaded, “the old 
bird apparently paying no attention to the intrusion.” Two nests were 
in the school woodpile, and another in a pile of boards and kindling about 
ten feet from the school woodshed. Encouraged by these evidences of 
trustfulness, Mr. Gilman put some straw in an old nail keg and laid it 
on its side in the shelter of some mesquite saplings, and three weeks 
later, as he says, “found that a Quail had moved in and laid two eggs. 
Later she completed the set, only eight eggs, and successfully hatched 
all but one. She was quite tame on the nest and would not be scared off 
by any mild measures.” To test her, Mr. Gilman goes on, “I tried 
hammering on the rear of the keg, rolling it gently and talking to her, 
requesting her to get off and let me count the eggs, but unless I put in 
my hand at the front of the keg she sat pat” (1915a, p. 87). 
Additional Literature.—Judd, S. D., U. S. Dept. Agr., Biol. Surv. Bull. 
21, 1905 (food).— Willard, F. C., Condor, XIV, 60, 61, 1912 (nest). 
MEARNS QUAIL: Cyrt6nyx montezumae mearnsi Nelson 
Plate 20 
Description. — Wing: 4.6 inches, tail 2.3, bill .5, tarsus 1.1. Feet heavy, 
with large powerful claws; tail of short, soft feathers, hardly distinguishable from 
coverts. Adult male: Head curiously patterned with black and white, soft blended 
crest, fawn colored at tip; back pale brown streaked with white; median underparts 
dark brown and black, sides slaty, thickly spotted with white; iris light brown, bill, 
legs and feet bluish gray. Adult female: Head pinkish brown, without stripes; 
back mottled and barred with black, brown, and lavender, and streaked with white; 
underparts light cinnamon or lavender, breast and sides specked and streaked. 
Immature male: Resembling the adult female but underparts ochrey or whitish 
with black variegation. Young: Like female but upperparts with hammer¬ 
headed white shaft lines and underparts thickly spotted. 
Range. —Arid Upper Sonoran and Transition Zones from central Arizona, 
southern New Mexico, and central Texas south to mountains of northern Coahuila, 
Chihuahua, and eastern Sonora. 
