224 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
State Records. —The Mearns Quail occurs in New Mexico in several districts. 
It is a bird of the mountain slopes and higher valleys, avoiding the intervening hot 
treeless deserts. It is most abundant on the headwaters of the Gila, San Francisco, 
and Mimbres Rivers and extends up to Fort Tularosa (Henshaw), the head of the 
Photograph by J. S. Llgon 
Fig. 37. Mearns Quail 
The curious “wall-paper pattern” of the head shows well 
here but would enlighten only an acquaintance, while the 
dark underparts are hidden in the usual crouching pose 
Gila (Bergtold), to Beaver Lake (Birdseye), Silver City (Kellogg), the head of the 
Mimbres (Bailey), and over to the Rio Grande slope of the Black Range at Chloride 
and Fair View (Nelson). A second area in which the species is possibly less common 
enters New Mexico from Texas in the Guadalupe Mountains (Bailey), and extends 
along the Sacramento Mountains to the White Mountains (Hollister). fA third 
is the San Augustine Plains. It also occurs in the extreme southwestern corner of 
the State (Ligon, 1927)1; in the Animas Mountains (Goldman); the San Luis Moun- 
tins, and on the southern New Mexico boundary line to a point 60 miles west of 
El Paso (Mearns). 
Its usual summer range in New Mexico is from about 5,000 to 8,000 feet. In 
fall it moves somewhat higher. In winter it retires from these higher altitudes, 
but does_not descend much lower than the lowest part of the nesting range. 
