10 QUAILOLOGY - ORNITHOLOGY 



narrow postocular white stripe, and the crown spotted with black; throat whit- 

 ish; beneath pale dingy ashy; with whitish shaft streaks, and without black 

 bars or other markings; above reddish or olivaceous drab, the feathers with 

 whitish shaft streaks, and a large black spot, mostly on upper web. Chick; 

 Head dina;y buff; an auricular dusky elongated spot, and a vertical patch of 

 chestniit rufous, widening on the occiput." 

 Stretch of 

 Length wing Wing 



Male 10.00 16.00 4.45 



Female... 9.50 14.70 4.35 



Iris brown; bill dark brown, usually pale brown at base of under mandible; 

 legs and feet pale bluish to brownish gray; claws black. (*) 



In this variety albinos are frequently reported; rangeing from a dusky to 

 almost pure white. 



NESTS AND EGGS 



The favorite nesting places of this bird are on the ground along 

 a fence row, at the foot of stumps surrounded by a thick growth 

 of vegetation, and not infrequently do they select a site in a 

 bunch of tall grass, or weeds, in the garden, or a cultivated field. 

 Where there are rail fences the intersecting, invariably grassy 

 nooks form a favorite nesting site. In the south "cotton rows." 

 The second setting is often placed at the base, or in the top of a 

 shock of small grain where their nest is often broken up by 

 threshing before the setting is hatched. The nest is a very neat 

 affair and is frequently arched over with grass forming a tunnel 

 completely hiding it from view. In the meadow lands as v/ell as 

 grain fields many nests and eggs are annually destroyed during 

 the haying and harvest season. 



Davie, in his Nests and Eggs of North American Birds, says: 

 "Sometimes three broods are reared in a season," this however 

 we cannot confirm, but invariably two broods are reared. The 

 first nesting in May and the second the last of July or in August. 

 An exceedingly late nesting is reported by I. S. Trostler, Omaha, 

 Nebr., ten fresh eggs being found in Pottawattamie County, la., 

 on September 12th, 1897. The nest was situated in an old unused 

 potato field, under a vine grown bush. 



The number of eggs in a setting varies from twelve to twenty- 

 five, and we know of one occasion of thirty-seven being found in 

 a single nest, which we cannot but say must have been the 

 complement of two females, while at the same time there was 

 but one to be seen thereabout. The eggs are pure white, unless 



>■■ Goss' Birds of Kansas. 



