THE AMERICAN QUAIL. 205 



ward seen daily feeding witli the hens and 

 cattle in the barnyard. 



While the eggs are being laid the female 

 will completely cover them with leaves to con- 

 ceal them in her absence. If the leaves are dis- 

 turbed by a man or animal while she is away, 

 she will instantly discover the intrusion, and 

 abandon the nest even if not a single egg has 

 been broken or removed. She seems to dis- 

 cover this by the sense of smell ; for one bird 

 student removed the leaves from a nest several 

 times with a pair of forceps without touching 

 them with his fingers, and then put them back 

 carefully, but the bird did not desert the 

 nest. You see, the wind might have dis- 

 turbed those sheltering leaves, and as long as 

 she was not advised of the presence of a man 

 by her sense of smell she did not detect any- 

 thing amiss. 



There are other species of partridges in this 

 country. The fact is, they comprise a very in- 

 teresting family. There is the mountain par- 

 tridsre, which dwells on the Pacific coast from 

 San Francisco to Washington. Its head is 

 adorned with two arrow-shaped plumes three 

 or four inches in length, and these can be 

 noticed in the form of a little tuft of down 

 as soon as the chick comes from the shell. It 



