Mystery Bird: Northern Bobwhite, Colinus virginianus

This bird's genus name reminds me of the character upon whom the most beloved, if not the grandest, fictional estate in Hertfordshire was entailed, while the species epithet brings to mind the defining characteristic of England's most beloved monarch.

Mrs. Roberto Blanco ?

I'm thinking a female northern bobwhite?

Field marks: it looks like a "game bird" sort of bird. It has a chunkier, bigger body than quail seem to, for me. It has a little crest, and a whitish stripe above/ behind the eye and a whitish area for the "chin."

The lower body is sort of speckled brown, white, and grey, while the wings seem less speckly or less white.

I don't get the hint at all. Who's England's most beloved monarch? H5? E1? oooo, maybe V? (okay, so we're going with the virginia thing? I'm a little slow!)

LOL John/Bardiac,

Unfortunately I fear that John's first literary clue is rather a stretch if he is referring to "the most beloved if not the grandest fictional estate in Hertfordshire" as Longbourn from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, where the main male protagonist, Darcy, was played by Colin Firth in the 1995 TV serial... Colinus

The second clue was not the name of the monarch but "the defining characteristic" and must refer to Elizabeth I who was also called "The Virgin Queen"... virginiana

No quibbles with the ID, Bardiac, but I'm curious about your terminology. My understanding is that Bobwhite are quail, and in fact they're a bit smaller than most of the western US quail species. (With the exception of the Montezuma.) Or were you referring to Coturnix, or one of the other Eurasian quail?

Once again, David, with the different-than-what-I-meant, but still-really-interesting interpretation of my clue.

Yes, Longbourn is the estate I was thinking of, but I was actually going for the the character to whom Longbourn was entailed, Mr. Collins. But I can see with the benefit of hindsight that Colin Firth's name fits the genus even better. But his character would have been more properly associated with Pemberley, which, while still a fictional estate, was of course in Derbyshire, not Hertfordshire, and was absolutely the grandest in the neighborhood. So my clue would have been fairly incoherent if that's what I meant, but amusingly, at least to me, it didn't slow you down at all in terms of identifying a connection with the actual bird.

Well played, sir!

psweet,

I think you're right. I've only ever seen California Quail, though, so I probably generalized from the ones I've seen, which don't seem (in my vague memory) as chunky in the body as this. When I just looked it up, the Cornell site says they're a type of quail.

Thanks for helping me learn!

Now that I'm home, I think to just tighten up the gender ID a little I would agree that this is a female but actually because the throat and supercilium are not white but buff (the male's would be white)

pair (male/female) of Northern Bobwhite

David Sibley's painting of male/female Northern Bobwhite

Thanks John! Although I am an ex-pat living in the States, the pat is still strong! (and yes, I do miss granary bread, Spitfire Kentish Ale, and singing "Jerusalem"!)

(initially I did toy with Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" where Charles Ryder attends Hertford College at Oxford but references to Sebastian would really only refer to species of annelid worms!)