102 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



be almost in one straight line thus, trailing the middle toe : 

 V_ about five inches 



*~ ^" T— — ^v" =( ^ apart. In one 

 place I saw where one had evidently trailed the tips of 

 the wings, making two distinct lines five or six inches 

 apart, one on each side the foot-tracks ; probably made 

 by a male. 



Feb. 16, 1855. I find in the leavings of the par- 

 tridges numerous ends of twigs. They are white with 

 them, some half an inch long and stout in proportion. 

 Perhaps they are apple twigs. The bark (and bud, if 

 there was any) has been entirely digested, leaving the 

 bare, white, hard wood of the twig. Some of the ends 

 of apple twigs looked as if they had been bitten off. 

 It is surprising what a quantity of this wood they swal- 

 low with their buds. What a hardy bird, born amid 

 the dry leaves, of the same color with them, that, 

 grown up, lodges in the snow and lives on buds and 

 twigs ! Where apple buds are just freshly bitten off 

 they do not seem to have taken so much twig with 

 them. 



JFeh. 22, 1855. He * had seen a partridge drum 

 standing on a wall. Said it stood very upright and 

 produced the sound by striking its wings together be- 

 hind its back, as a cock often does, but did not strike 

 the wall nor its body. This he is sure of, and declares 

 that he is mistaken who affirms the contrary, though it 

 were Audubon himself. Wilson says he " begins to 

 strike with his stiffened wings " while standing on a 

 log, but does not say what he strikes, though one would 

 1 [Mr. Jacob Farmer.] 



