QUAILS. 209 



can be obtained. If unmolested, the birds are said by 

 the Mexicans to attain to an age of from fifteen to 

 eighteen years, as proved by individuals brought up in 

 confinement from their downy stage, although fifteen 

 years is supjjosed to represent the average life of the Per- 

 dicidce, according to the computation of Pallas. Their 

 movements are very rapid in captivity, and they ex- 

 hibit unusual suspicion, alertness, and timidity. The 

 Mexican naturalist, Don Pablo de la Llave, says he re- 

 peatedly attempted to rear the blue colin in cages, but 

 that, though he fed them himself, and constantly minis- 

 tered to their wants, he could not accustom them to his 

 presence, and that they appeared to become more wild, 

 intractable, and suspicious day by day, and when the 

 experiment was persisted in, that they finally pined 

 away and died of a disorder closely simulating nostalgia. 



While colins may be met with occasionally on rocky 

 ground, it is probable that they frequent such regions 

 only when they afford sustenance to mesquite bushes, as 

 they seem especially partial to the presence of this form 

 of vegetation. The plains and grassy mesas are preferred 

 to rocks and hills. They are found on all plains 

 where parpalum and mesquite grasses grow, and amongst 

 the groves of acacia, prosopis, nispalos, and mesquite. 

 They are, it is said, very partial, in the more northern 

 regions of their habitat, to the so-called prairie dog towns, 

 though these usually embrace large tracts destitute of 

 vegetation. For lack of a better cause to which to as- 

 sign this strange preference, the birds are supposed to be 

 drawn thither by the abundance of favorite insect food. 



They are also at times, and particularly toward the 

 close of summer or early autumn, found to cover large 

 tracts destitute of all forms of vegetable life, especially 

 open, sandy plains, though these, usually, are not far 

 removed from either grass or water. They are probably 

 capable of existing for considerable periods of time 



