-iTm . vr. ¡. CoiM,
ORTYX CUBANENSIS, Gould.
Cuban Partridge.
S p e c if ic C harac t er .
Ort. loris, striga superciliari, e t g u la a lb is; pectore, e t abdomine superiore nigro e t castaneo
variegatis ; lateribus rujis, g u tta rum serie albarum ornatis, his g u ttis oblongis, albis, nigro
circumdatis, e t ad marginem plumarum positis.
Male.— Crown o f the head, ear-coverts and chest black, the latter mottled with chestnut, and the
black feathers on the sides o f the neck having an oblong spot o f white near the tip ; lores,
stripe over the eye and throat white ; primaries grey ; tail blue-grey, minutely freckled with
b u ff; scapularies and greater wing-coverts margined with buff; the centres o f the feathers
very dark brown, freckled with chestnut-brown; back and upper tail-coverts very dark
brown, freckled with chestnut-brown and g r e y ; flanks rufous, with a row o f white spots
on the margin o f each feather, separated from the rufous tint by marks o f black, these
black and white marks forming a series of irregular stripes down the sides ; bill black ;
feet flesh-colour.
Female.—Lores, stripe over the eye and throat b uff; the white marks on the sides o f the neck
in the male replaced by buff; crown o f the head and ear-coverts brown; no black mark
on the .chest, the feathers being similar in colour to those of the abdomen, which differ from
the same part in the male in being of a paler rufous, and in having transverse arrow-head-
shaped markings o f black and spots o f buff; in other respects the plumage assimilates to
that o f the male, but is of a paler hue.
Total length, 8 inches ; bill, v ; wing, 4-f-; tail, 2-f-; tarsi, H ; middle toe and nail, H.
O rty x Virginianus, D ’Orb. in Ramon de la Sagra’s Hist. Nat. de Cuba, p. 182.
Cubanensis, Gould, Gray and Mitch. Gen. o f Birds, vol. iii. p. 514, Ortyx, sp. 2.
T hat this bird is not identical with 0. Virginianus, as it appears to have been considered by M. D’Orbigny,
is, I think, evident from the much smaller size of the bill, the more extensive black colouring of the head,
neck and chest, and the totally different markings of the flanks and abdomen ; it might be considered that
the more southern climate of Cuba may have been the cause of a departure from the normal plumage of
the'United States bird, but such an opinion would be controverted by the fact, that specimens from Jamaica,
an island lying still farther south, are precisely similar to the true 0 . Virginianus.
A very fine specimen of this bird graces tbe Museum at Leyden, and two others are in the collection of
the Zoological Society, one of which is a lusus naturce, having some of the back feathers and the greater
portion of the primaries white: they were brought direct from Cuba, and presented to the Society by
W. S. MacLeay, Esq.
Habitat. The island of Cuba.
The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size.