36 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Texas, they have been exceptionally numerous and may frequently be seen 

 sitting on the stone walls .surrounding grainfields in Limpia Canon. In 

 Mexico 1 have seen them several times living contentedly in cages. In Mes- 

 qnite Canon they are the only Partridge found, and in June and July, 1887, 

 I spent some time there trying principally to locate the nest and eggs of 

 this species. I found a single egg in a depression at the roots of a tasaca 

 cactus, presumably belonging to this species. It was white, without any 

 markings whatever. While there 1 was informed by two different parties 

 living in the vicinity that each of them had found a nest the previous year, 

 1886, containing eight and ten eggs respectively, which they had eaten. 

 Thev described the eggs as being white in color. Both said that the nest 

 was simplv a slight hollow, one under a small shin-oak bush, the other along- 

 side a sotol plant. The call note of this bird is a low murmuring whine, 

 more like that of the rock-squirrel, 6'. urninmurus, than a bird, and it can be 

 heard quite a distance. I can not imitate it in syllables. They are very 

 fond of acorns, mountain laurel, arbutus, cedar, and other berries, and range 

 in coveys from eight to twelve." 



('apt. Platt M. Thome, Twenty-second Infantry, U. S. Army, writes me: 

 "I found the Massena Partridge common at both Forts McKavett and Clark, 

 Texas, where they apparently liked the same kind of ground as the Texan Bob 

 White, yet the lines of their habitat seem mysteriously restricted for some rea- 

 son. Can it be that their food is peculiar? All the stomachs I have examined 

 (fall birds) contained little else than large quantities of white shiny bulbous 

 roots, rounded at both ends, and about the size of French pease. I regret 

 now that I never forwarded any of these roots, that it might be determined 

 what they were. You are aware how well these birds are adapted to scratch- 

 ing and I have an idea that this root food might account for their restricted 

 distribution. I also found them abundant on a divide near Nueces River, 

 but I never saw any within 20 miles of the -Rio Grande." 



Lieut. Robert C. Van Vliet, Tenth Infantry, U. S. Army, also met with 

 the Massena Partridge in western Texas and northern New Mexico (Fort 

 Union), usually along the sides of rocky ravines. He tells me that they 

 wen; fairly common, and that their food (at least during the fall and early 

 winter), consisted almost entirely of a small angular brownish-looking bulb, 

 with a white kernel, the root of a short grass, their crops containing scarcely 

 anything else excepting small particles of gravel. He often saw where they 

 had scratched out holes to the depth of 2 inches in search of these roots, 

 and such evidences were always abundant in localities frequented by these 

 birds. Their call note is a clear "dsiup-chiur." He rarely saw coveys con- 

 siting of more than eight birds. Polecats seem to be one of their principal 

 enemies. 



Capt. William L. Carpenter, U. S. Army, states: "I have observed this 

 species in the b'io (Jrande Valley, near Taos, New Mexico, and more fre- 

 quently on the headwaters of the Black and White Rivers, where it undoubt- 



