386 



GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



The sound is a call to the female, though it is indulged in 

 occasionally at other seasons than in the spring. The quail- 

 like bobwhite (Coli'nus Virginia' nus) is also, but errone- 

 ously, called "partridge" in the Southern states. It is a 

 smaller bird than the ruffed grouse, reddish brown in color, 

 and without the ruff about the neck. Neither of these birds 

 should be called "partridge," since that name is already in 

 use for Eurasian species of gallinaceous birds. The same 



statement is true of the 

 term "quail," which is 

 often applied to our bob- 

 white. The pheasants 

 are magnificently colored 

 birds, native to south- 

 eastern Asia and adjacent 

 islands. The Hungarian 

 partridge and the ring- 

 necked pheasants have 

 been introduced in vari- 

 ous regions in the inter- 

 ests of the sportsman. 

 Pigeons and Doves. The Colum'bae (Lat. columba, "dove") 

 are closely related to the gallinaceous birds, but the nostrils 

 open into a fleshy cere. The domestic pigeons belong to 

 this group. We have in the eastern United States but one 

 species of wild dove, the mourning, or turtle, dove. The 

 passenger pigeon was formerly present in immense num- 

 bers in the wooded regions of the eastern L T nited States. 

 In the early years of the eighteenth century flocks were 

 seen which stretched far across the sky, and which required 

 hours to pass a given point. Owing to the increased demand 

 for both young and adults as food they were slaughtered in- 

 discriminately and have since, to our disgrace as a civilized 

 nation, been entirely exterminated. 



Fig. 202. Young of jungle fowl 



