MASSENA PARTRIDGE. 71 
fiding is probably that the waste places it frequents are 
not much resorted to by man, and hence its acquaintance 
with its chief enemy and destroyer has been of too 
limited a character for it to acquire that shy and wild dis- 
position a full knowledge of the ways and power of the 
human biped always brings to every creature of the 
woods and plains. It may be that in some places where 
the Massena Partridge has been much hunted that it 
is as wild and wary as are the other species of this group, 
but wherever I have seen it, the birds have always pos- 
sessed the gentle disposition already mentioned. So 
far as I am aware it never goes in large flocks, but is 
met with in small companies, and not infrequently three 
or four birds only are seen together. It appears to be 
as altogether different in its ways from other Partridges 
as it is from them in general appearance. It is a plump 
little bird, and has a manner of walking with a rounded 
back and humped up body, and exhibits very little of 
the elegance of form and gracefulness of carriage so char- 
acteristic of Gambel’s and the California Partridge, or 
even the Blue Quail. But its fantastically colored head, 
flanks dotted like the plumage of a guinea fowl, and short, 
stumpy tail give to it an appearance peculiarly its own 
and in no way approached by any other Partridge. The 
nest is a hollow scratched out of the soil, lined with 
grass, and hidden by the grass growing around, or else 
placed under a bush or some dead limb lying near the 
ground, surrounded by grass. The eggs are pure white, 
very glossy, and about ten in number. 
When there are any grain fields in the vicinity of its 
habitat this Partridge will pick up the kernels lying 
about, but its chief food, at least in certain localities, 
seems to be small bulbous roots, and perhaps the re- 
stricted area in which these are found may in a measure 
