14 QUAILOLOGY - ORNITHOLOGY 



stretch of 



Length wing Wing Tail Tarsus Bill 



Male 9.35 1425 4.25 2.50 1.15 .55 



Female.... 9.00 14.00 4.30 2.40 1.15 .50 



Iris brown; bill and claws black; legs and feet olive gray. (*) 



NESTS AND BGGS 



The nesting habits and peculiarities of this species do not differ 

 materially from those of the C. virginianus. The eggs are 

 slightly smaller and about the same in numbers. 



The favorite nesting site of this species is a bunch of sedge- 

 grass. J. A. Singley of Giddings, Texas, reports the finding of 

 five eggs in the nest of a domestic hen not over thirty yards' from 

 a farm house, (a) 



Two or three broods are reared in a season, complete settings 

 being found as early as May 3rd, to late in September. An un- 

 usual complement of thirty-three eggs is noted but a reference is 

 lacking. Eggs measure 1.04 x .98 to 1.20 x .95. 



HABITS 



This species is somewhat smaller and lighter colored than the 

 C. VIRGINIANUS. It is a bird of the lowlands and is not found 

 above two thousand feet altitude. 



Its food consists of small berries, acorns, green buds and leaves 

 of aromatic herbs and small shrubs varied with an occasional 

 beetle, grasshopper, and ants, especially the winged female of 

 which they are very fond. 



They are very unsuspicious and their low notes uttered while 

 feeding attracts many enemies, notably: the marsh hawk, fox, 

 and the large rattlesnake, their worst enemy, so common in Tex- 

 as. Many young are destroyed yearly by the heavy rains of 

 June and July, and large numbers perish from cold and protract- 

 ed wet weather. 



During the extreme hot weather of the summer months they 

 may always be found under the large live oaks of the prairies. 



CUBAN BOB WHITE 



Colinus virginianus cubanensis ( Gould. ) 



Geog. Dist. — Cuba and South-Western Florida. 



Sp. Char.— Slightly smaller and darker colored than the C. v. floridanus. 



(a) Bendire's Works. 

 * Goss' Birds of Kansas. 



