NOTES ON THE MOUNTAIN PARTRIDGE. 75 



flg. 3), a work whereinthe pterytography orall llic rnilcd 

 States Partridges is describod and comparcd. 



Tht'so Ijirds dviring Uie time I had Ihe opportimity of 

 obsorving them, gave vent to but few notos, and they vvere 

 low and soft, not at all liko Iho lond cloar call they fro- 

 qucnlly ntler in naturo. A number of thcse birds died in 

 the large cage in which thoy were kept, although they fed 

 well on vvheat and other seeds of the kind, and drank 

 water frequcntly. Doubtless it was due to the fact that the 

 conditions under which they were foreed to live were so 

 completely different from what they were accnstomed to 

 enjoy in their own snnny California. Moreover, their cage 

 was crowded by the presence of several pairs of the scaled 

 Partridge [Calipepla squamata) and the European Qiiail 

 [Cotiirnyx dactylisonans). In my opinion these birds wonld 

 do well if placed in a large aviary out of doors, with their 

 natural food and environment closely imitated. They 

 might even be inducedto breedundei- such circumstances. 

 There are admirable facililies for tyring such experiments 

 at the National Zoological Gardens at Washington, D.-C. 

 but for some reason or oLher it is not done. This is quite 

 likely to be the case, just so long as a government thinks 

 more worthily of spending millions upon the buihling of 

 battleshipsand begrudingly appropriatesbut afew dollars, 

 comparatively, to the establishment and stocking of insti- 

 tutions of public Instruction and entertainment. 



Nearly all the Partridges of N. America have been 

 studied by me now in confinement, and l have photo- 

 graphed most of them alive, and published the results. 



Representatives of the genera Colimis, Calipepla, and 

 Lophortyx have been thus secured nearly the size of life, 

 white with Gambel's Partridge I was especially success- 

 ful, and showed there too, that the several feathers com- 

 posing its crest were kept together, as 1 have described 

 above for Oreortyx, and not spread out, in the manner of 

 a fan, as Audubon erroneously depicted ibem in bis plate, 

 an error which has led so niany ornithological artists 

 astray sincehis time, who have blind lyfoUowed him. " Any 



