220 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



buried, he descends the range to the brushy 

 foothills, at a height of from two thousand to 

 three thousand feet above the sea; but like 

 every true mountaineer, he is quick to follow 

 the spring back into the highest mountains. I 

 think he is the very handsomest and most inter- 

 esting of all the American partridges, larger and 

 handsomer than the famous Bob White, or even 

 the fine California valley quail, or the Massena 

 partridge of Arizona and Mexico. That he is 

 not so regarded, is because as a lonely moun- 

 taineer he is not half known. 



His plumage is delicately shaded, brown 

 above, white and rich chestnut below and on the 

 sides, with many dainty markings of black and 

 white and gray here and there, while his beauti- 

 ful head plume, three or four inches long, nearly 

 straight, composed of two feathers closely folded 

 so as to appear as one, is worn jauntily slanted 

 backward like a single feather in a boy's cap, 

 giving him a very marked appearance. They 

 wander over the lonely mountains in family 

 flocks of from six to fifteen, beneath ceanothus, 

 manzanita, and wild cherry thickets, and over 

 dry sandy flats, glacier meadows, rocky ridges, 

 and beds of Bryanthus around glacier lakes, 

 especially in autumn, when the berries of the 

 upper gardens are ripe, uttering low clucking 

 notes to enable them to keep together. When 

 they are so suddenly disturbed that they are 



