40 



THE OOLOGIST. 



ing dry is hard and very stable. 



The Belted Kingfisher has a nest en- 

 tirely of sand, for the burrow in the 

 sand bauk has no lining and the eggs 

 are laid on the bare earth. The nest of 

 the Loon and Grebe is composed of 

 garbage from the lalie, and often a var- 

 iety i-i embraced in the soggy structure. 

 Many Ducks build no nest at all, or 

 very shiftless ones at best, but all, or 

 nearly all beautifully line their nests 

 with down plucked from their own 

 breasts. Woodpeckers, though digging 

 out their homes at great pains, rarely 

 or never line them, and all the nests 

 that I have examined were provided 

 alone with a few chippings of wood. 

 Herons compose their nests almust en- 

 tirely of sticks and twigs, but some 

 species make use of roots and moss, and 

 sometimes the Green Heron uses grass, 

 while the small and greater Bitterns 

 construct their nests entirely of grass 

 and rushes. The former usually mak- 

 ing a platform a few inches to three 

 feet above the water or marsh and the 

 latter .selecting some bog or slight ele- 

 vation in the marsh. The Cranes make 

 scanty nests, and generally select a pile 

 of rubbish or a lot of marsh hay placed 

 to their liking. 



To be continued. 



MOKKIS GiBBS, M. D. 

 Kalamazoo, Mich. 



Scaled Partridge. 



Perhaps a few notes on the Callipepla 

 squamata, Scaled Partridge (A. O. U. 

 No. 293) as it is seen in its natural 

 haunts will interest Fome of the eastern 

 readers of the Ooligist who are not 

 acquainted with this bird in life. 



Although Prof. W. W. Cooke in his 

 "Birds of Colorado" lists this bird as a 

 rare or accidental visitant to Colorado, 

 it occurs in considerable numbers in 

 the valley of Rocky Ford and in flocks 

 of from twenty to one hundred in the 

 foot hills forty miles to our south. Prof. 



Cooke got his information from W. P. 

 Lowe of Pueblo who perhaps never col- 

 lected as far southeast as this, and per- 

 haps missed the species and therefore 

 caused the mistake. As th's species has 

 been but little studied I have given it 

 extra time. Upon several occasions 

 while collecting skins I have sat upon 

 a rock and watched the birds as they 

 wandered about seeking their food. 



In habits the Callipela squamata re- 

 sembles the Colinus virginianus (Bob- 

 White,) it goes about in flocks until the 

 mating season which commences about 

 April 1st here, but as this is the north- 

 ern limit, it probably mates in March 

 in the warmer latitudes. It is a non- 

 migrator and there has been a flock of 

 sixteen coming regularly every day to 

 the barn on my ranch to get their 

 breakfast. I have fed them when the 

 mercury stood at 20° below zero. Tbey 

 get very tame when treated kindly. 

 Although they are a Southern species 

 they stand the winters here as well as 

 the Colinus virginianus or Callipepla 

 californica which are both residents of 

 Colorado. These in the valley visit the 

 ranchmen's feed lots and fare better 

 than those in the hills who have to baffle 

 deeper snow with only what food they 

 can get above the snow. Their food 

 consists of wild sun-flower seeds, cedar 

 berries and seeds of two or three other 

 plants of which I do not know the 

 names. 



At the nesting season the male will 

 sit on some elevated object or point 

 and call out his two notes of chug c-h-u-g 

 which is nearly a whistle, (or a whistle 

 with a grating sound) and is easily im- 

 itated by the human voice. These two 

 notes are repeated from four to ten 

 times, accoi'ding to the bird's wishes, 

 and are made nearly together, it taking 

 the bird about one second to make both 

 notes. The accent falls on the end of 

 the last note. The key is about the 

 same pitch as the first note of the Bob- 

 White. 



