32 LIFE EISTORIES OF NORTH AMEFJCAN BIRDS. 



an unusually late one, and though I searched carefully for the nests of this 

 si)ecies during both April and May, I failed to liud a single one before May 

 20. This contained ten fresh eggs. During June I found a number, how- 

 ever, also two in July, and one as late as August 17. I believe two broods 

 are refularlv raised in a season. Incubation, as near as I was able to learn, 

 lasts from twenty-one to twenty -four days, and does not begin until all the 

 eggs are laid, and these are deposited daily. 



The nest of Gambel's Partridge is simply a slight oval-shaped hollow, 

 scratched out in the sandy soil of the bottom lauds, usually alongside of a 

 bunch of "sacaton," a species of tall rye grass, the diy stems and blades of 

 last year's growth hanging down on all sides of the new growth and liiding the 

 nest well from view. Others are placed under, or in a pile of, brush or drift 

 l)rought down from the mountains by freshets and lodged against some old 

 stump, the roots of trees, or other obstructions on some of the numerous islands 

 in tlie now dry creek beds, refreshing green spots amid a di'eary waste of sand. 

 (It is perhaps as well to mention that many of the so-called creeks in Arizona 

 are dry for about ten months of the year, the water sinking below the sand for 

 a foot or or two, but running below this tlu-ough the coarser gravel, digging 

 being necessary in order to reach it.) These so-called islands are always cov- 

 ered with a luxurious vegetation, and it is in this that most of the Partridges 

 nest. According to my observations only a comparatively small number resort 

 to the cactus and yucca covered foothills and mesas some distance back, where 

 the nests are usually placed under the spreading leaves of one of the latter- 

 named plants. If grain fields are near by they nest sometimes amidst the 

 growing grain in these, and should the latter be surrounded by brush fences, 

 these also furnish favoiite nesting sites. 



Among the nests observed by me two were placed in situations above 

 ground. One of these was found June 2 on top of a good-sized rotten willow 

 stump, about 2^ feet from the ground, in a slight decayed depression in its 

 center, which had, perhaps, been enlarged by the bird. The eggs Avere laid on 

 a few di"y cottonwood leaves, and were partly covered by these. Another pair 

 appropriated an old Road-runner's nest, Geococcyx caUfornianus, in a mesquite 

 tree, about 5 feet from the ground, to which apparently a little additional lining 

 had l)een added by the bird. The nest contained ten fresh eggs when found on 

 June 27, 1872. 



Mr. Herljert Brown found a pair of these birds occupving a newly-made 

 nest of a Palmer's Thrasher, IlarporhynchHS curvirodris palmcrl, in which seven 

 eggs had been deposited. This nest was placed in and near the top of a cholla 

 cai'tus al)out 4 feet from the ground. He says: "My first impression was 

 that an Indian had proljal)ly placed them there, but I was soon convinced to 

 the contrary, as I found it impossible to get my head near the nest without first 

 breaking down a part of the cholla with the barrels of my gun. The eggs were 

 fresh and finely marked."^ 



' Forest and Stream^ June 4, 1885. 



