16 LIFE HISTORIES OF JSOBTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



have been left by wood -choppers, the boughs of which afford excellent cover 

 for the iiest. 



Mr. L. Belding found a deserted nest of this species in a cavity of the 

 trunk of a standing- tree near Big Trees, California, but in this locality they 

 nest oftener in thickets of the rock rose or the tar-weed, and according to his 

 observations they do not desert their nests for slight cause, like the Bob White 

 or the California Quail. The eggs vary from eight to fourteen in number, 

 averaging usually about eleven, and are indistinguishable from those of the 

 preceding subspecies. They are generally more or less stained by contact with 

 the lining of the nest and the soil. 



Mr. Loren W. Green, of the U. S. Fish Commission, reports the Plumed 

 Partridge as quite common near Baird, Shasta County, California, and he found 

 a nest containing nineteen eggs, seeing also a brood of twenty young birds. In 

 that vicinity they raise two broods a season. The earliest date on which eggs 

 were found by him was April 15, and the latest August 15. Occasionally a 

 nest is placed on top of old decayed tree stumps. Rattlesnakes are very com- 

 mon in this locality, and these birds have adopted such sites, probably from the 

 fact that they afford them better protection from such enemies. A nest taken 

 by Mr. Green on May 24, 1886, near Redding, California, contained twelve 

 fresh eggs; these were placed in a slight excavation on a hillside under a 

 small bush, and well concealed from view. Another, found May 5, 1885, in 

 the Volcan Mountains, San Diego County, California, by Mr. F. W. Paine, at 

 an altitude of about 5,000 feet, contained eight slightly incubated eggs. It was 

 placed among a lot of dry leaves in a pine and fir forest. 



Mr. A. M. Ingersoll, of San Diego, California, found a nest of the Plumed 

 Partridge containing ten eggs, under a mass of excelsior and other shavings 

 that had lodged against a brace of a snowshed, less than 15 feet from the rail- 

 road track on the Union Pacific Railroad in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 



Mr. F. Stevens found a full set of eggs of this subspecies in southern 

 California as early as April 7. 



The ground color of the eggs of the Plumed Partridge varies from pale 

 cream to a reddish buff, and in shape they are short ovate. Incubation lasts 

 about twenty-one days, and an egg is laid daily until the set is complete. The 

 shell is smooth and slightly glossy, and usually more or less stained by contact 

 with the lining of the nest or the soil. 



The average measurement of sixty-six specimens in the U. S. National 

 Museum collection is 34.5 by 26.5 millimetres. The largest egg of the series 

 measures 38 by 28, the smallest 32 by 25.5 millimetres. The type, No. 10049, 

 (PI. 1, Fig. 3), selected from a set of ten eggs, is one of the darkest colored spec- 

 imens; it was taken June 7, 1866, near Downieville, California, by Mr. William 

 Veille. No. 18187 (PI. 1, Fig. 2), one of the palest colored specimens of the 

 series, showing the other extreme, was collected by Mr. L. Belding, June 10, 

 i880, in Bear Valley, Alpine County, California. This nest had been aban- 

 doned and contained only six eggs when found. 



