410 TETRAONIM. 



they crowded together in a circle on the ground, and 

 prepared for the slumbers of the night by placing their 

 tails all together ; with their pretty mottled chins facing to 

 the front in a watchful round-robin. 



" When food was thrown in for them, which consisted 

 chiefly of spirted barley and wheat, and occasionally bread, 

 the male bird would peck at the grain, but not eat any 

 himself until he had called his family around him first to 

 partake of the food, which he did with many soft blandish- 

 ments, and with much strutting and spreading of the wings 

 and tail. 



" I was greatly disappointed at the loss of this interest- 

 ing family ; and I waited with some impatience for the 

 result of another season. The season at length arrived : 

 they built their nest again as before ; the hen laid about 

 sixteen eggs ; when, to my great mortification, just as she 

 had begun to sit, I found her dead one morning : and can 

 no otherwise account for the circumstance than by sup- 

 posing that something must have frightened her in the 

 night, and caused her to fly up with violence against the 

 wires, which proved fatal to her. Thus ended my hopes of 

 domesticating this elegant little bird, as I have not been 

 able to procure another female. I wished much to breed 

 some more, and turn them out if successful, as they lay 

 many eggs, and are much more easily reared than either 

 Pheasants or Partridges." 



This bird is a general inhabitant of North America, from 

 the northern parts of Canada and Nova Scotia, in which 

 latter place it is said to be migratory, to the extremity of 

 the peninsula of Florida. In the eastern and middle dis- 

 tricts, Mr. Audubon says, its common name is that of 

 Quail, but in the western and southern States, it is called 

 a Partridge. Their food, in a wild state, consists of grain, 

 seeds, insects, and berries ; but buckwheat and Indian corn 



