222 
NESTS AND EGGS OF 
apt to lose the brilliancy of their plumage in the third generation, and 
display in places an intermingling of white feathers throughout the pale 
brown which they then assume. In the cut accurate representations of the 
sexes appear, the female differing from the male in being of smaller size, 
in having less brilliant colors, in the much smaller fleshy protuberance 
above the base of the hill, and in the absence usually of the pencil of 
bristles on the breast, and of spur. From the Mexican variety — the sup- 
posed parent of the tame species — it differs in having the upper tail-coverts 
chestnut, but without the light tips, and in having the ends of the tail 
feathers scarcely paler, instead of brownish-yellow or whitish. The male 
bird ranges from forty-eight to fifty inches in length, and weighs from 
sixteen to thirty-five 2 ^ounds. The wing is twenty-one inches long, and 
the tail eighteen and a half. The female is smaller proportionally, and 
weighs about thirteen pounds. 
The eggs are usually from eight to fifteen in number, but sometimes 
amount to eighteen, and even twenty. They are of an elongate oval form, 
obtuse at one extremity, and jDointed at the other. Their ground-color is 
a dark cream, and there are pretty generally scattered over the surface 
rounded spots of umber-brown. In dimensions they are apt to differ, even 
in the same nest-full. S|3ecimens vary from 2.25 to 2.58 inches in length, 
and from 1.74 to 1.89 in width. In no portion of its habitat is the 
sj)ecies other than single-brooded, although nests with eggs are occasionally 
found in June, but these are due to delays caused by various contingencies. 
