AfASSEI^A PARTRIDGE. 



71 



fiding is probably that the waste places it frequents are 

 not much resorted to by man, and hence its acquaintance 

 with its chief enemy and destroyer has been of too 

 limited a character for it to acquire that shy and wild dis- 

 position a full knowledjje of the ways and power of the 

 human biped always brings to every creature of the 

 woods and plains. It may be that in some places where 

 the Massena Partridp^e has been much hunted that it 

 is as wild and wary as arc the other species of this group, 

 but wherever I have seen it, the birds have always pos- 

 sessed the gentle disposition already mentioned. So 

 far as I am aware it never goes in large flocks, but is 

 met with in small companies, and not infrequently three 

 or four birds only are seen together. It appears to be 

 as altogether diflferent in its ways from other Partridges 

 as it is from them in general appearance. It is a plump 

 little bird, and has a manner of walking with a rounded 

 back and humped up body, and exhibits very little of 

 the elegance of form and gracefulness of carriage so char- 

 acteristic of Gambel's and the California Partridge, or 

 even the B!ue Quail. But its fantastically colored head, 

 flanks dotted like the plumage of a guinea fowl, and short, 

 stumpy tail give to it an appearance peculiarly its own 

 and in no way approached by any other Partridge. The 

 nest is a hollow scratched out of the soil, lined with 

 Rrass, and hidden by the grass growing around, or else 

 placed under a bush or some dead limb lying near the 

 ground, surrounded by grass. The eggs are pure white, 

 very glossy, and about ten in number. 



When there are any grain fields in the vicinity of its 

 habitat this Partridge will pick up the kernels lying 

 about, but its chief food, at least in certain localities, 

 seems to be small bulbous roots, and perhaps the re- 

 stricted area in which these are found may in a measure 



i^: 



m 



:« 



