58983, ♀.
Chamæpelia passerina (III, 389). Dr. Cooper states that an individual of this species was killed by Mr. Lorquin at San Francisco, in May, 1870. Mr. Lorquin also obtained several at San Gabriel, Los Angeles County, several years previous.
Tetrao obscurus (III, 421). Dr. Cooper found this species in April, 1870, at the edge of the melting snow, near Cisco, about 6,000 feet altitude. They were still more numerous at Emigrant Gap, 5,300 feet altitude, where snow lay only in patches, and at Truckee, on the east slope, where there was no snow, and where he found two of their eggs in a deserted nest within sight of the town. In July he found them near Verdi, near the State line. This is the limit of their range. They also frequent the edge of perpetual snow, at an elevation of 9,000 feet, more numerously than below.
Ortyx virginianus, var. floridanus (III, 469, footnote). Specimens from Miami, Fla., exhibit the peninsular extreme of this species. They are altogether more like var. cubanensis than like virginianus proper, yet they differ uniformly in such essential respects from the Cuban form that they merit a distinctive name. The characteristic features of this form are the following:—
Char. Above, with dark bluish-gray prevailing, only the anterior part of the back being washed, or mixed, with reddish; scapulars and tertials quite conspicuously bordered with whitish. The whole gray surface more or less mottled or barred with black. The head-stripes are nearly uniformly black, with only a little rusty mixed in the occiput; the black gular collar is much extended, encroaching on the throat anteriorly, so as to leave only an inch, or less, of white, and posteriorly invades the jugulum, so that there is more than an inch of continuous black, and over this distance where black predominates. The entire abdomen, anal region, and breast are heavily barred with black, the black bars on the breast almost equalling the white ones in width. The sides, flanks, and crissum are nearly uniform rufous, the feathers of the former with white edges, broken by the extensions of the black streak which runs inside the white, while the latter have heavy black medial streaks and white terminal spaces.
The female is similar, except in the color of the head, which is exactly that of var. texanus.
Wing, ♂, 4.30–4.40; ♀, 4.35. Culmen, .60–.65; tarsus, 1.15–1.20; middle toe, 1.05–1.10.
Oreortyx pictus (III, 475). Dr. Cooper found these birds already paired near the summit of the Sierra Nevada, where the snow was but half melted off, and they scarcely descended below the limits of the snow in the coldest weather. In July he saw young birds just hatched near Truckee, at an elevation of 6,000 feet. This was on the 24th. On the 28th another brood, a little older, was seen at the foot of Mt. Stanford, about 8,000 feet above the sea. Most of the broods, however, were nearly fledged at that time. Dr. Cooper also mentions that he found this Quail not rare in the mountains east of San Diego above an elevation of 3,800 feet. He thought, also, that he heard this bird in the Santa Anna range east of Annaheim. It also exists in the Santa Inez Mountains, sixteen miles east of San Buenaventura, at an altitude of from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. It seems to be confined to the zone of coniferous trees, rarely if ever coming below them. Mr. Henshaw has obtained this species at Apache, in Arizona.
Lophortyx gambeli (III, 482). Captain Bendire found this Quail breeding in the vicinity of Tucson, in Arizona, near Rillito Creek, occasionally nesting in situations above the ground. One nest, seen June 7, 1872, contained three fresh eggs. It was two feet above the ground, on a willow stump, and in an exposed place, near the creek. The nest was composed of the leaves of the cottonwood-tree. In some instances he found as many as eighteen eggs in one nest. These closely resemble the eggs of the California Quail, so much so as to be hardly distinguishable from them. They are all of a rounded oval shape, sharply tapering at one end, and quite obtuse at the other. They measure 1.24 inches in length by one inch in their largest breadth. Their ground-color varies from a deep cream to a light drab. Some are sparingly marked with large and well-defined spots, most of them circular in shape, and of a rich purplish-brown color. In others the whole surface is closely sprinkled with minute spots of yellowish-brown, intermingled with which are larger spots of a dark purple. This species was obtained in Southern Utah by Mr. Henshaw.