AMERICAN PARTRIDGES. 



303 



and insects, which they pick up among the dry leaves. All the 

 members of this group are strictly American, and by far the 

 greater number of them are natives of that portion of the conti- 

 nent lying between the thirtieth degree of north latitude and the 

 equator. Four species are now included in the Fauna of North 

 America, and four have been discovered in Brazil. Some {^\\ 

 extend their range to the larger West India islands, and several 

 others inhabit the vast mountain range of the Andes. They form a 



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VRiuOE (Ortyx i!2gro£uLir2s). 



large and well-defined family, distinguishable from the partridges 

 and quails of the Old World by the absence of any spur or spur- 

 like appendage on the tarsi, and by the toothlike processes on the 

 upper mandible. They are pugnacious in their disposition, semi- 

 arboreal in their habits, and deposit their eggs in a depression of 

 the ground or in a very inartificial nest. Their food consists of 

 seeds, berries, fruits, and the tender leaves of grass and other 

 vegetables. Their flesh is white, tender, and well flavoured. In 

 the morning and evening twilight they perch on a low branch very 

 near each other, when the males frequently give utterance to their 

 cries, which reverberate through the forest to a great distance. If 

 alarmed while on the ground, they usually hasten to a low branch, 



