236 HISTORY OF THE 



the cocks come together again and recommence their rambles. 

 Let us now return to the females. 



"About the middle of April, when the season is dry, the hens 

 begin to look out for a place in which to deposit their eggs. 

 This place requires to be as much as possible concealed from 

 the eye of the crow, as that bird often watches the Turkey when 

 going to her nest, and, waiting in the neighborhood until she 

 has left it, removes and eats the eggs. The nest, which con- 

 sists of a few withered leaves, is placed on the ground, in a 

 hollow scooped out, by the side of a log, or in the fallen top of 

 a dry, leafy tree, under a thicket of sumach or briers, or a few 

 feet within the edge of a canebrake, but always in a dry place. 

 The eggs, which are of a dull cream color, sprinkled with red 

 dots, sometimes amount to twenty, although the more usual 

 number is from ten to fifteen. When depositing her eggs, the 

 female always approaches the nest with extreme caution, 

 scarcely ever taking the same course twice; and when about to 

 leave them, covers them carefully with leaves, so that it is very 

 difficult for a person who may have seen the bird to discover 

 the nest." 



Their nests are placed on the ground, in dense thickets, often 

 under an old log or tree top, in a place scratched out to fit the 

 body, and lined loosely and sparingly with grasses, weeds and 

 leaves. Eggs ten to fifteen, 2.50x1.85; buff white, speckled 

 and spotted with rusty brown; in form, somewhat oval, but 

 rather pointed at small end, and obtuse at the other. 



ORDER COLUMB^E. 



PIGEONS. 



"Bill straight, compressed, horny at the vaulted tip, which is separated by a 

 constriction from the soft membranous basal portion. Nostrils beneath a soft, 

 tumid valve. Tomia of the mandibles mutually apposed. Frontal feathers 

 sweeping in strongly convex outline across base of upper mandible. Legs feath- 

 ered to the tarsus or beyond. Hallux incumbent (with few exceptions), and 



