“It inhabits the Mezquite regions in Northern Mexico.”
The contents of the stomachs of Capt. French’s specimens were hemipterous insects, some of which were very minute, with a few seeds and pods.
Our plate represents the male and female, which are nearly alike in plumage, about two-thirds of the size of life.
DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.
Genus Callipepla. Wagler in Isis, 1832, p. 277. Callipepla squamata. (Vigors.) Ortyx squamatus. Vig. Zool. Jour., V. p. 275. (1830.) Callipepla strenua. Wagler, Isis, XXV. p. 278. (1832.) Tetrao cristata. Llave, Registro Trimestre, I. p. 144. (1832.)
Form. Robust, body compressed; head with long, erectile, crest-like feathers; bill rather strong, curved; wings short, with the fourth quill slightly longest, tertiaries long; tail rather long, ample, rounded; legs and feet moderate; tongue pointed, very acute at the tip; nostrils large.
Dimensions. Total length of skins, 8½ to 9 inches; of specimens in spirits (from Capt. French), 10 inches; wing, 4½; tail 3¼ inches.
Colors. Head light yellowish cinereous, with a tinge of brown; feathers of the crest broadly tipped with white. All other parts of the plumage light bluish ash color, paler on the under parts and nearly white on the abdomen; nearly every feather of the under parts and of a wide ring around the back of the neck, with a central arrow-head, of brownish black, and with a narrow but very distinct edging of the same. Flanks with longitudinal central stripes, and in some specimens with circular spots of white. Middle of the abdomen frequently with a large spot of pale chestnut; under tail-coverts nearly white, with longitudinal stripes of dark ash and brown. Quills light ashy-brown; shorter tertiaries frequently edged with yellowish-white on their inner webs; bill, black; irides, hazel; tarsi, brownish lead-colored. The width of the white tips of the feathers of the crest varies in different specimens. Sexes very nearly alike; female slightly paler, and not so fully crested.
Hab. Texas and New Mexico. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Mus., Washington.
Obs. This species does not resemble any other at present known, and is therefore easily recognized. It is the type of Wagler’s genus Callipepla, in which are also arranged the California Partridge and Gambel’s Partridge.