A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 3 of 3

by Spencer Fullerton Baird; T. M. Brewer; Robert Ridgway

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,[¹¹⁶] 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.