486 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



a coiiiinon Hen, imd found no (lilliculty in iloniesticating them, sn that thoy 

 associated freely with the barnyard iViwls. The eggs, he adds, are white, or 

 yellowish-white, witli brown spots, and were hatched out in twenty-four 

 days. The nest is said to be a rather rude structure, about eight inches 

 wide, and is usually hidden in the grass. The eggs number from twelve to 

 seventeen. 



Captain S. G. French, (pioted by Mr. Cassin, writes that he met with this 

 species on the Eio Grande, seventy miles below El Paso, and from that 

 point to the place named their numbers constantly increased. They ap- 

 peared to l)e partial to the abodes of man, and were very numerous about 

 tlie old and decayed buildings, gardens, fields, and vineyards around Pre- 

 sidio, Isoleta, and El Paso. During his stay there in the summer of 1851, 

 every morning and evening their welcome call was heard all around ; and at 

 early and late hours they were constantly to be found in the sandy roads 

 and paths near the villages and farms. In the middle of the hot summer 

 days, however, they rested in the sand, under the shade and protection of 

 the thick chaparral. When disturbed, they glided through the bushes very 

 swiftly, seldom resorting to flight, uttering a peculiar chirping note. The 

 parents would utter the same cliirping cry whenever an attempt was made 

 to capture their young. The male and female bird were always found with 

 the young, showing much affection for them, and even endeavoring to attract 

 attention away from them by their actions and cries. 



Colonel McCall (Proc. Phil. Ac, June, 18.51) also gives an account of this 

 bird, as met with by him in Westei'n Te.xas, between San Antonio and the 

 Eio Grande Kiver, as well as in New Mexico. He did not fall in with it 

 until he had reached the Limpia Piiver, a hundred miles west of the Pecos, 

 in Texas, where the Acacia rjlandulosa was more or less common, and the 

 mesquite grasses and other plants bearing nutritious seeds were abundant. 

 There they were very numerous and very fat, and much disposed to seek 

 the farms and cultivate the acquaintance of man. About the rancho of 

 Mr. White, near El Paso, he found them very numerous, and, in flocks of 

 fifty or a hundred, resorting morning and evening to the barnyard, feeding 

 around the grain-stacks in company with the poultry, and receiving their 

 portion from the hand of the owner. He found them distributed through 

 the country from the Limpia to the Piio Grande, and along tlie latter river 

 from Eagle Spring Pass to Doiia Ana. 



The same careful observer, in a communication to ^Ir. Cassin, gives the 

 western limit of this species. He thinks it is confined to a narrow belt of 

 country between the 31st and 34th parallels of latitude, from the Pecos 

 Eiver, in Texas, to the Sierra Xevada and the contiguous desert in Califor- 

 nia. Tt has not been found on the western side of these mountains. Colonel 

 McCall met with it at Alamo JMucho, forty-four miles west of the Colorado 

 Eiver. AVest of this stretches a desolate waste of sand, — a barrier which 

 effectually separates this species from its allj', the California Quail. 



