S8 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMBRIOAN BIRDS. 



" The birds breeding along' the northern Hmit of their habitat migrate 

 southward ix. October. In southern Arizona the same result of a warmer win- 

 ter climate is obtained by descending the flanks of the mountains. The 

 summer range of this species is just above and bordering that of Gambel's 

 Quail in parts of Arizona and New Mexico. The fact that Gambel's Quail 

 changes its range but little in winter results in these birds being found very 

 frequently occupying the same ground at this season, I have never seen the 

 Massena Partridge in coveys larger than would be attributed to a pair of adults 

 with a small brood of young. Frequently a pair raise Imt three or four, and I 

 do not remember having ever seen more than six or seven of these birds in 

 a covey." 



Personally I met with this species several times in the foothills and 

 canons of the Santa Rita, Patagonia, and Huachuca Mountains in southern 

 Arizona in the early part of August, 1872, while scouting after hostile Indians, 

 but had no time then to study their habits nor to look for their nests. A 

 small covey of young, less than half grown, were seen by me on August 14 

 in a canon of the Patagonia Mountains, about 12 miles from Camp Crit- 

 tenden, and an addled egg was picked up from an abandoned nest under a 

 small yucca in the same vicinity by one of my packers, whose attention was 

 drawn to the place by seeing several broken egg shells lying about the yucca, 

 and dismounting to investigate he found the egg under the bush and con- 

 cealed by it, which he handed to me some two hours afterwards. The nest, 

 he said, was within 5 feet of the trail I had previously passed over. While 

 not absolutely certain of the identity of this egg I always felt confident that 

 it belonged to this species, and since I have had an opportunity of examin- 

 ing the eggs taken dm-ing the season of 1890 I have no further doubt of it. 

 The egg in question is ovate in shape, differing in this respect from all the 

 eggs of the genus Col'mus I have ever seen, which are usually rounded ovate, 

 or subpyriform. The egg is pure white in color, the shell is smooth and 

 close grained, and it measures 32 by 23 millimetres. 



Mr. Otho C. Poling writes me that he found the Massena Partridge in 

 parts of the Whetstone, the Santa Rita, Patagonia, and Huachuca Mountains 

 of southern Arizona, where they were fairly common. He says: "During 

 most of the year the Massenas remain in coveys of from four to a dozen birds 

 in number, and even at the height of the nesting season I have several 

 times found coveys of half a dozen together, while I have shot pairs in 

 the month of February. 



"On June 12, 1890, I shot a female and found a fully developed egg 

 in her oviduct which would have been laid soon. It measures 30.5 by 25 

 millimetres, and is pure white in color. In another female, shot the same 

 day, the ovary contained small ova about the size of No. 6 shot, which 

 would not have been laid for some weeks. On July 15 I found my first 

 productive nest. I was climbing up a steep mountain side on the northeast 

 of the Huachuca Mountains, some 10 miles north of the border, when at an 



