Part 110

=Callipepla.= Crest springing from the crown. Wing-coverts normal. Tail stiffened, nearly as long as the wings. Claws small, acute; outstretched feet not reaching the tip of tail.

=Cyrtonyx.= Crest occipital. Wing-coverts greatly developed. Tail very small and soft; half as long as the wings. Toes short; claws very long, blunted; outstretched feet reaching much beyond the tip of the tail.

All the North American Quails, except Cyrtonyx massena, have the inner tertiaries edged internally with whitish or buff, forming a conspicuous line on each side of the rump when the wings are closed.

GENUS ORTYX, STEPHENS.

Ortyx, STEPHENS, Shaw’s Gen. Zoöl. XI, 1819. (Type, Tetrao virginianus, L.)

GEN. CHAR. Bill stout. Head entirely without any crest. Tail short, scarcely more than half the wing, composed of moderately soft feathers. Wings normal. Legs developed, the toes reaching considerably beyond the tip of the tail; the lateral toes short, equal, their claws falling decidedly short of the base of the middle claw.

The genus Ortyx embraces numerous species, more or less resembling the well-known Bob-white of the United States. They are chiefly confined to Mexico, Central America, and the West India Islands. North America and the West India Islands contain but one species, and this is so exceedingly variable in plumage that it is only at extreme points of its range that differences acquire sufficient constancy to be considered worthy of especial notice. The regions of its extremes of variation are the northeastern, southeastern, and southwestern limits of its range; the modifications attaining in Cuba and in Texas sufficient value to have been deemed of specific importance. But comparing even the three extremes of plumage, the differences are found to consist only in a varying amount of the several colors, specimens from intervening regions forming the connecting links.

Ortyx virginianus.]

Species and Varieties.

=O. virginianus.= Head longitudinally striped, with a dark superior and lateral stripe, a light superciliary stripe (continuing down the side of the neck), and a light gular patch; these stripes blackish and pure white in the male, and rusty and ochraceous in the female. Above mottled with rusty and grayish; the latter prevailing posteriorly, the former anteriorly. Upper part of the rump, scapulars, and upper wing-coverts more or less blotched with black. Beneath white, with transverse, somewhat V-shaped bars of black; sides striped with rufous; lower tail-coverts rufous, with black medial arrow-head, and both webs tipped with roundish spots of rusty white.

Black gular collar of the male .50, or less, in width.

Reddish tints prevailing; these nearly continuous on the upper parts, where the mottlings are minute. Distinct black blotches on the scapulars, tertials, and upper part of rump. Wing, 4.25 (Florida, Southern Illinois, Missouri, etc.) to 4.80 (northeastern United States). Hab. Eastern Province of the United States; Jamaica? …

var. virginianus.

Grayish tints prevailing; no continuous color on the upper parts, where the mottlings are coarse and general. No distinct black blotches on the scapulars, etc. Gular black collar narrower. Wing, 4.10 to 4.50. Hab. Plains, from Texas to Kansas (where it grades into virginianus) …

var. texanus.

Black gular collar much more than .50 in width.

Black markings predominating in the male. Female hardly distinguishable from that of var. texanus. Wing, 4.10. Hab. Cuba …

var. cubanensis.

1. Ortyx virginianus. ♂ Pa., 1715. 2. Ortyx virginianus. ♀ Pa., 1714. 3. Ortyx texanus. ♂ Texas, 4099. 4. Ortyx texanus. ♀ Texas, 9347. 5. Oreortyx pictus. ♂ Cal., 3935. 6. Callipepla squamata. ♂ New Mex., 9386.]

Ortyx virginianus, var. virginianus, BONAP.

QUAIL; PARTRIDGE; BOB-WHITE.

Tetrao virginianus, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 277, 16 (female?).—GMELIN, I, 1788, 761. Perdix virginiana, LATH. Ind. Orn. II, 1790, 650.—WILSON, Am. Orn. VI, 1812, 21, pl. xlvii.—DOUGHTY’S Cab. I, 1830, 37, pl. iv.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 388; V, 1839, 564, pl. lxxvi. Perdix (Ortyx) virginiana, BONAP. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 203. Ortyx virginiana, JARDINE, Nat. Library Birds, IV, Game Birds, 101, pl. x.—BON. List, 1838.—AUD. Syn. 1839, 199.—IB. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 59, pl. cclxxxix.—GOULD, Mon. Odont. pl. i.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 640.—NEWTON, Ibis, I, 255 (Santa Cruz; introduced!).—BRYANT, B. Pr. VII, 1859 (Bahamas; introduced!).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1861, 80 (Jamaica).—MARCH, P. A. N. S. 1863, 303 (Jamaica).—MAX. Cab. J. VII, 1858, 444.—GRAY, Cat. Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 75.—FOWLER, Am. Nat. III, Dec. 1869, 535 (habits). Perdix (Colinia) virginiana, NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 646. Tetrao marilandicus, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 277, 18.—GMELIN, I, 1788, 761, 17. Perdix marilandica, LATHAM, Ind. Orn. II, 1790, 650. Tetrao minor, BARTRAM, Travels, 1791, 290 bis. Perdix borealis, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict.—IB. Galerie, II, 44, pl. ccxiv. Ortyx borealis, STEPH., Shaw’s Zoöl. XI, 1819, 377. Virginia Partridge, LATHAM, Syn. II, ii, 777. Ortyx castaneus, GOULD, P. Z. S. X, 182.—IB. Mon. Odont. (A somewhat melanistic plumage, occasionally seen in specimens from Iowa, Illinois, etc. ?)

SP. CHAR. Forehead, and line through the eye and along the side of the neck, with chin and throat, white. A band of black across the vertex, and extending backwards on the sides, within the white, and another from the maxilla beneath the eye, and crossing on the lower part of the throat. The under parts are white, tinged with brown anteriorly; each feather with several narrow, obtusely V-shaped bands of black. The forepart of back, the side of the breast, and in front just below the black collar, of a dull pinkish-red. The sides of body and wing-coverts brownish-red; the latter almost uniform, without indication of mottling. Scapulars and upper tertials coarsely blotched with black, and edged internally with brownish-yellow. Top of head reddish; the lower part of neck, except anteriorly, streaked with white and black. Primary quills unspotted brown. Tail ash. Female with the white markings of the head replaced by brownish-yellow; the black ones with brownish.

Young. Head ashy, with a narrow post-ocular white stripe, and the crown spotted with black; throat whitish. Beneath pale dingy-ashy, with whitish shaft-streaks, and without black bars or other markings. Above reddish or olivaceous drab, the feathers with whitish shaft-streaks, and a large black spot, mostly on upper web.

Chick. Head dingy buff; an auricular dusky elongated spot, and a vertical patch of chestnut-rufous, widening on the occiput.

Length, 10.00; wing, 4.70; tail, 2.85.

Hab. Eastern United States to the high Central Plains; Devil’s River, Texas?

Specimens from Missouri and Southern Illinois are intermediate between the typical virginianus of the Northeastern States and Florida examples, which approach in every respect, except the broad jugular collar, the var. cubanensis. The size is scarcely greater,—the range in Florida birds being wing 4.10 to 4.30, while the average of Missouri and Southern Illinois series is about 4.25; again, in northern and eastern specimens the wing is 4.70 to 4.80. In colors, Southern Illinois and Florida birds are also very similar; but in Florida there is less tendency to black blotches on scapulars, etc., while in specimens from the southern part of the peninsula the bill is appreciably larger. From the plains of Kansas specimens are intermediate between these Illinois birds and the var. texanus.