226 BIRDS OF BERMUDA. 
Resident and abundant. It nests twice, laying two white eggs, -85 
inch by .64 inch, in a small, flimsy construction of twigs and cedar 
bark, generally placed on the bushy horizontal bough of a cedar tree, 
from eight feet to twenty feet above the ground. The earliest eggs I 
saw were on April 4, the latest on June 27; but there are instances of 
its breeding even in the winter months. When disturbed from its nest 
it falls like a stone to the ground, where it commences to flutter about, 
as if in the agonies of death, to deceive the intruder. Should the lat- 
ter be taken in by the good acting of the poor little bird, and attempt 
to seize her, she shuffles away along the ground just out of reach, farther 
and farther from her nest, and when she thinks her home is safe, away 
she dashes into the trees with a joyful “‘ whir-r-r-r” of relief. My terrier 
used to be completely ‘‘sold” in this way, and had many an exciting but 
fruitless chase after the little doves. The “colored” people have an 
absurd superstition about this bird, and say that when it utters its 
‘“eo0-oop” (this is an extraordinarily loud and sonorous e¢all for so small 
a bird, and can be heard a long distance), it is scratching up the ground 
for somebody’s grave! The habits and mode of feeding of the species 
are too well known to need description. The male is larger, and has 
the sides of the neck and the under parts of a much warmer purplish 
red than the female. 
Order GALLIN A. 
Family PERDICIDA. 
Sub-family ORTYGIN 2. 
Genus ORTYX, Steph. 
91. Ortyx virginianus, (Linn.) Bp. Virginian Partridge or Quail. 
Tetrao virginianus, Linn., Gin. 
Perdiz virginiana, Lath., Wils., Bp., Aud. 
Ortyz virginianus, Jard., Bp., Aud., Gould, Bd., and late authors. 
Tetrao marilandicus, Linn., Gm. 
Perdiz marilandica, Lath. 
Perdix borealis, Vieil. 
Ortyx borealis, Steph., Jard., & Selby. 
Ortyx castaneus, Gould. 
Length, 10.00; wing, 4.70; tail, 2.85. 
Hab.—Eastern United States to the high central plains (Baird). 
This bird (known to English sportsmen as a comparatively recent 
introduction, under the name of Virginian “ Colin”) is the gamebird of 
Bermuda; but whether it originally found its way there from the Amer- 
