134 



North American Birds Eggs. 



their weight, otherwise. They build their nests on these little Hoating islands 

 in the marsh; they are also sometimes made of weeds and trash on floating lily 

 pads. They lay from three to tive eggs of a yellowish olive color, curiously 

 scrawled with brown and black. Size 1.^2 x .95. Data. — Tampico, Mexico, 

 June 3, 1900. Three eggs. Nest of weeds and drift on lily leaf floating in fresh 

 water pond near town. Collector, F. B. Armstrong. 



GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. Order X. GALLIN/E 



GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, ETC. Family TETRAONID/E. 



The members of this family are birds of robust form, subdued (not brightly 

 colored) plumage, comparatively short legs and necks; the tarsi and toes are 

 feathered in the Ptarmigan, the tarsi, only, feathered in the Grouse, and the 

 tarsi and toes bare in the Partridges and Bob-whites. They feed upon berries, 

 buds, grain and insects. 



289 Bob-white. Colinui^ rirginianus. 



Range. — United States east of North Dakota and Texas and from the southern 

 British Provinces to the Gulf coast. 



A celebrated "game bird"' which has been hunted so 

 assiduously in New England that it is upon the verge of 

 extermination, and the covers have to be continually 

 replenished with birds trapped in the south and west. 

 They frequent open fields, which have a luxuriant 

 growth of weeds, or grain fields in the fall. Their nests 

 are built along the roadsides, or beside stonewalls or 

 any place affording satisfactory shelter. The nest is 

 made of dried grasses and is arched over with grass or 

 [White]. overhanging leaves so as to conceal the eggs. They lay 



from ten to twenty pure white eggs, which are very fre- 

 quently nest stained when found. Size 1.20 x .95. Often two or three broods 

 are raised in a season, but frequently one or more broods are destroyed by rainy 

 weather. 



289a. Florida Bob-white. Colinuf! I'irgiiiianvft floridaints. 



Range. — This sub-species, which is found in the southern half of Florida, is 

 very much darker than the northern Bob-white, and is numerously barred below 

 with black. Its nesting habits and eggs are identical with those of the preceding. 



289b. Texan Bob-white. CoHniis Virginia iu(s tcxanus. 



Range. — Texas; casually north to Kansas. A grayer variety of the Bob-white. 

 The nesting habits and eggs are the same as those of the Bob-white, except that 

 the eggs may average a trifle smaller. Size 1.18 x .92. 



