232 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



in some fence-corner. About 1S90 the species was nearly- extinct 

 in Winnebago and Hancock counties, but the number rapidly in- 

 creased from year to 3'ear until it is now common. Dr. Smith 

 has noticed the same state of affairs in Winneshiek count}-. 

 Though the pairs scatter during the nesting .season they assemble 

 later in cove3\s, frequenting grain-fields in the fall and thickets, 

 corn-fields and bottom-lands in the winter. 



Genus Callipepla Wagler. 

 Subgenus Callipepla Wagler. 



127. (293). Callipepla squamata (Vig.). Scaled Partridge. 



"A single specimen of this southwestern bird, shot at Tabor, 

 Iowa, May 2, i88g, was exhibited by Prof. J. E. Todd at the meet- 

 ing of the Iowa xAcademy of Sciences, September 5, 1899. It was 

 doubtless a straggler, and the species cannot be considered as be- 

 longing to our state fauna" (Herbert Osborn, Catalogue of Ani- 

 mals represented in the collection of the Iowa Agricultural Col- 

 lege. i89i,p. 7). 



Subfamily TP:TRA0NIN.€. Grouse. 

 Genus Bon as a Stephens. 



128. (300). lioiiasa uuibe/liis {hiwn.). RuffedGrou.se. 



The Ruffed Grouse, conunonly known as "Partridge" or 

 "Pheasant," is now a rare bird in most localities in the state, 

 where it was formerly common. It is a resident species and a few 

 pairs still linger wherever the native woodland remains uncleared, 

 and in the springtime, and rareh' in autumn and winter, the dull, 

 muffled drumming of the male bird may be heard as, standing on 

 .some fallen log or stump, he beats the air with his wings. The 

 species is reported as still common in restricted localities in the 

 state. G. H. Berry reported that one hunter killed over twenty 

 in one day along the Cedar River in Linn county in 1903. 



Major Bendire states in his Life Histories of North American 

 Birds: ''Mr. Lynds Jones of Grinnell found a nest of the Ruffed 

 Grouse in a hollow stump" (vol. i, 61). "Sets of sixteen eggs or 

 over are of rare occurrence, but I have a reliable record of one 

 numbering twenty-three eggs. Mr. John P\ Paintin of Coralville, 

 Iowa, found the set May 26, 1886, near the Iowa River, ten mile^^ 

 north of Iowa City. He was walking along inthe timber, and 



