412 GAME-BIRDS. 



a clear path, they go off with great speed. Having reached 

 the level of the tree-tops, a few yards suffice for headway, 

 and the latter part of their flight, extended sometimes to 

 several hundred yards, is usually made with very little motion 

 of the wings. 



d. The ordinary notes of the " Partridges " are a chuck or 

 clucking, and the whining call of the hen to her young. 



31. PERDICID^E. Partridges. (See 30.) 

 I. COLINUS. 



A. VIRGINIANUS. Quail. Partridge. " Bob White" 

 In southeastern New England, a common resident.* 



a. About nine inches long. $ , with the crown-feathers 

 somewhat erectile. Chief tint, reddish or chestnut brown, 

 somewhat restricted on the head, wanting on the tail and 

 middle of the under parts, but becoming chestnut red on the 

 sides. Head, with much black, but with the throat, forehead, 

 superciliary line, and edging of the lower feathers, white. 

 Upper parts, marked with black, gray, and tawny. Tail, gray, 

 scarcely marked ; quills browner, slightly mottled with tawny. 

 Breast, etc., waved or barred with black ; belly, chiefly white, 

 and less marked. , with tints less bright, etc. ; the throat, 

 etc., buff. 



b. The nest is not unlike that of the Ruffed Grouse, but 

 it is more neatly constructed, being frequently lined with 

 strips of bark, and is often built in more open or bushy 

 places. The eggs average about 1.20x1.00 of an inch, are 

 somewhat pointed, and are white (often slightly stained but 

 not strictly spotted). They are laid in the latter part of 

 May, and there are sometimes, according to Wilson, twenty- 



* The northern boundaries of the vere winter causes the utter annihila- 



area occupied by this species in New tion of these outposts, and so thins 



England cannot be very definitely or the ranks of the more southern birds 



permanently stated, for the reason that several years may elapse before 



that they are constantly changing, they begin to recover the lost ground. 



The birds increase rapidly under fa- Hence it has happened that they have 



vorable conditions, and after a succes- not established themselves permanently 



sion of mild winters push their way anywhere much to the northward of 



well into southern Maine and New the northern borders of Massachusetts. 



Hampshire. But the next really se- W. B. 



