(Lophortyx gambeli)
The gambel partridge occupies a unique position in its common
nomenclature. In California it is known as the Arizona quail, while
the sportsmen of Arizona refer to it as the California quail. In this,
too, they both have good reasons for the names used, for these birds
are found on both sides of the Colorado river, that is in both Arizona
and California. Commencing in the Mexican state of Sonora, where they
are found from the western slope of the Sierra Madre mountains to the
Gulf of California, the range of the species extends northward and
eastward through western Arizona, and, crossing the Colorado river
onto the desert of the same name, passes through southeastern
California into southern and central Nevada and Utah. The gambel quail
belongs to the same genus as the two species of the California valley
quail and in general appearance resembles them.
The gambel quail is emphatically a desert bird, able to live through
the long, dry seasons without water. If there are any trees in its
neighborhood it will seek them for roosting purposes, but it is found
distributed over vast sections where even the smallest brush is very
scattering and under cover nearly quite if not entirely absent, yet in
such places this member of the resourceful blue quail family protects
itself from hawks and predatory animals with an astonishing success.
The gambel quail is a true runner and can develop an astonishing speed
for so small a bird. A very large part of the unwarranted reputation
of the California valley quail as a runner is derived from confounding
it with the gambel and the habit of the Arizona sportsmen of calling
the gambel the California quail, but even as great runners as the
gambel quail are, I have found them to lie well to the dog in the
heavy bunch-grass sections of southeastern California and southern
Nevada. I have also had fine sport with them along the bottoms of the
Colorado river, where they are to be found in abundance.
The food is practically the same as the California valley quail.
=Color=--The general color of the upper parts and the breast is
lighter and more of an ashy blue than the valley quail, but in its
markings the gambel is the more conspicuous and more brilliant. The
black throat, bordered with white, the gray forehead and the forward
turned plume are common to both, but the top of the head of the gambel
is a bright cinnamon red, while that of the valley quail is a sooty
brown. The flanks of the gambel are conspicuously marked with bright
chestnut brown with each feather with a narrow central stripe of
white.
=Nest and Eggs=--Are the same in this species as in the valley quail.
=Measurements=--Same as the valley quail.
[Illustration: SCALED QUAIL (Callipepla squamata)]