CALLIPEPLA CALIFORNICA.
Californian Partridge.
S p e c if ic C h aracter.
C a ll capite crista p lena nigra, super rostrum acclinatâ ornato ; g u lâ nigrâ albo circumdatâ,
collo postice e t ad latera plumbeo, singulis plumis nigro marginatis, et a d apicem albo
g u tta tis ; abdomine superiore fu lv o , medio castaneo, singulis plumis lunula nigra apicali.
Male.—-Forehead straw-colour, with a very fine line o f black down the centre o f each feather ;
throat deep velvety black, encircled from the posterior angle o f the eye- with a broad line
o f white ; across the head and passing down behind the eye another line o f white, bounded
posteriorly b y black ; occiput umber-brown ; crest deep velvety black ; feathers o f thé
back and sides o f the neck lanceolate in form, and o f a blue-grey bordered all round with
black, and with a minute spot o f white at the extremity o f each ; back, rump, upper tail-
and wing-coverts olive-brown ; tertiaries edged with buff, narrowly on their outer webs
and broadly on their inner ones ; tail grey ; chest blue-grey ; upper part of the abdomen
rich buff, centre o f the abdomen chestnut, all the feathers with a crescent-shaped line o f
black at the extremity ; flank-feathers olive-brown, with a line o f buffy white down the
centre, and a second broader, oblique line o f buff on the outer web o f each ; under tail-
coverts sandy buff, with a broad stripe o f greyish brown down the centre o f each ; bill
black ; feet grey.
Female.— Forehead dirty white, streaked with brown ; crest brownish grey ; feathers o f the
abdomen buffy white, with a crescent-shaped mark o f black at the tip ; feathers o f the
sides and back o f the neck less decidedly marked ; under surface destitute o f the buff and
chestnut markings which are so conspicuous in the male.
Total length, 9a inches ; bill, ± ; wing, 4j ; tail, 4 ; tarsi, 1a; middle toe and nail, 1a.
Crested Partridge o f New California, La Pér. Voy., vol. i. p. 201.
P e rd ix Californica, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., pi. Ixii.—Temm. Pig. et Gall., p. 738.
Californian Quail, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., p. 281.—lb . Gen. Hist., vol. viii. p. 328.
Tetrao Californica, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pi. 345.
O rty x Californica, Steph. Cont. o f Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xi. p. 384.— Less. 111. de Zool.,
texte de pl. 52.—Aud. Birds o f Am., vol. iv. pi. 418.
O rty x Californicus, Less. Cent, de Zool., p. 188. pl. 60v—Benn. Gard, and Menag. o f Zool.
Soc., vol. ii. p. 29.
Coturnix Californica, Vieill., 2nd Edit, du Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxv. p. 259-— H>-
Ency. Méth. Orn., Part I. p. 367.
O rty x Californica 1 Jard; and Selb. 111. Orn., vol. i. Gen. Ortyx.
Lophortyx Californica, Bonap. List o f Birds o f Eur. and Am., p. 42.— G. R. Gray, List of
Gen. o f Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 80.
T his species, which is second to no member of the group in beauty, is rendered remarkable by the peculiar
form o f the crest, which, rising in a fine point a t the vertex o f the head, gradually increases in breadth