QUAIL, GROUSE, ETC. 159 



grains of the precious metal which characterizes its home, 

 and that the pigment is imparted to the eggs. 



After the nesting season these birds commonly gather 

 in "coveys" or bevies, usually composed of the members 

 of but one family. As a rule they are terrestrial, but may 

 take to trees when flushed. They are game birds par excel- 

 lence, and, says Chapman, trusting to the concealment 

 afforded by their dull colors, attempt to avoid detection by 

 hiding rather than by flying. The flight is rapid and 

 accompanied by a startling whirr, caused by the quick 

 strokes of their small, concave, stiff-feathered ^vings. They 

 roost on the ground, tail to tail, with heads pointing out- 

 ward, "a bunch of closely huddled forms — a living bomb, 

 whose explosion is scarcely less startling than that of dj^na- 

 mite manufacture." 



The partridge is on all hands admitted to be wholly 

 harmless and at times beneficial to the agriculturist. It is 

 an undoubted fact that it thrives with the highest system 

 of cultivation, and the lands that are the most carefully 

 tilled, and bear the greatest quantity of grain and green 

 crops, generally produce the greatest number of partridges. 



THE MASSENA PARTRIDGE* 



This beautiful species is said to be by far the most gentle 

 and unsuspicious of our quails, and will permit a very close 

 approach by man, showing little or no fear of what most 

 animals know so well to be their most deadly enemy. While 

 feeding they keep close together, and constantly utter a 

 soft clucking note, as though talking to one another. 



