446 MASSENA QUAIL CYRTONYX MASSENA. 



wild ; as occurring in pairs or in flocks : each account being circumstan- 

 tial and limited. But this very diversity of statement helps to a knowl- 

 edge of the bird ; and here, as elsewhere, I cannot refrain from pressing 

 the importance of the record of any facts whatever, however isolated, 

 that may be gleaned by personal observation upon the habits and man- 

 ners of birds, no matter how small and unpromising the field, or how 

 often it has been gone over before. Any information, so be it that it is 

 accurate, is better than none ; though still it should be remembered 

 that ex parte statements are liable to mislead, particularly when used in 

 generalizations, the inductive not being in natural history, as it is in 

 the more exact sciences, always a safe method of reasoning. 



There are two points in the history of this species to which attention 

 may profitably be directed. One is the bird's remarkable unsophistica- 

 tion. Living in what we should consider lonely desolation, but which 

 is to it a happy home, the bird has not yet learned to throw aside the 

 gentle, confiding disposition its Maker gave. No contact with the lords 

 of the universe, guardians of civilization and progress, jobbers in ethics 

 and aesthetics, has yet begotten in its ingenious nature the wholesome 

 change that the requirements of self-preservation will some day demand, 

 and which it will instinctively adopt. Birds that live in populous dis- 

 tricts have had a lesson to learn of bitter experience, and its fruits have 

 been instilled through generation after generation, till a second nature 

 replaces the first, and a shrewd distrust of the whole human race is 

 instilled. It is a nauseous dose that these Quail, like innocent chil- 

 dren, have to swallow ; but the medicine acts vigorously and bene- 

 ficially, heart-longings and soul-breathings, and the like, giving way to 

 something more substantial and sensible. Some day a fine old Cock 

 Massena shall say to his family, " timeo Danaos et dona ferentes ; " the 

 newly-born wisdom shall take well, and become gospel to succeeding 

 generations, to outlive in the code of Quail ethics the memory of the 

 ^neid in the minds of men. 



We are familiar with the structural peculiarities of the Massena Quail, 

 and it is not likely that these deviations from a common standard are 

 not reflected in some way in the bird's habits and manners ; but how, 

 we are still ignorant. Nothing accounting for these peculiarities has 

 yet been learned; and yet there must be some traits that, for their 

 proper exhibition, require the special modification that we find. These 

 individualizing traits ofter an inviting field for investigation. Mr. Cas- 

 sin has, perhaps, taken the initiative toward such discovery, in an ob- 

 servation founded upon consideration of the bird's colors. " The circu- 

 lar spots," he says, "which are numerous on the inferior parts of the 

 body in this Partridge, appear to indicate as a character an analogy to 

 the Guinea-fowls, which is further sustained by its habit of uttering its 

 note continually when in company with its fellows, or when feeding." 



Adult male: Bill convex, very stout, the under mandible doubly toothed; legs large 

 and strong, toes very short, claws long, strong, much curved ; wings moderate, the 

 tertials iiud coverts highly developed ; tail very short and soft, not reaching beyond 

 the thick, long coverts ; a short, full crest. Under parts pure velvety black, with a 

 broad longitudinal band of deep chestnut, the black parts on the sides beautifully 

 marked with distinct, rounded white spots, several on each feather; upper parts vary- 

 ing shades of yellowish or tawny white, and most of them with narrow transverse 

 bars of blackish, changing into spots on the wing-coverts ; primaries dusky, barred 

 with reddish or yellowish-white; crown variegated with black, brownish, and yellow- 

 ish; the crest yellowish, nearly white behiud; other parts of the head white, oi- ashy, 

 fantastically edged and striped wath black ; chin black, separated by a white stripe 

 from a maxillary black line, this latter by white from a triangular black patch below 

 the eye; a black stripe from the nostrils over the side of the crown, separated bj'' a 

 white line from the central black on the forehead. Iris, brown ; bill, deep bluish horu- 



