206 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
tion, it may sometimes be seen falling forward over the 
bill, and again resting quietly upon the neck. 
The number of feathers composing it are variable— 
generally from four to six, more rarely ten, and all 
club-shaped, and curved slightly anteriorly; the webs are 
loose and bend backward from the shaft, each feather 
being imbricated, or overlapping, the whole being packed 
into a single fascicle in this manner. This ornamental 
appendage appears at an early age, evidences of it being 
easily detected when the chicks are but a few days old, 
and sometimes before the first true feathers of the tail 
and wing can be noticed. It springs from a single point 
on the vertex immediately behind the transverse line that 
crosses the head from eye to eye, and, at first, consists of 
a mere tuft of three short brown feathers, without being 
curved or club-shaped in appearance, or having the inti- 
mate association with one another which they possess later. 
In their downy state the chicks are very pretty little 
objects, and, as far as markings are concerned, do not 
bear the slightest resemblance to their parents. The bill 
is of a bright reddish hue, the upper mandible being the 
lighter and having more of a pinkish tinge; the feet are 
flesh-colored; the head is yellowish-brown, with a pure 
white spot upon the nape, and a few black feathers on 
the crown, each streaked with white; the upper parts are 
tawny or brownish-gray, mottled and clouded with black, 
and conspicuously streaked with long, narrow, penciled, 
whited-white lines; the primaries are dusky, marbled - 
with lighter and darker colors on the outer webs; 
the throat is whitish, and all other under parts are marked 
with narrow, blended, transverse bars of black and yel- 
lowish-white. The little things in this condition are 
about three and a half inches long, and may be found up 
to the last of August, though by this time most of the 
summer’s brood are partly grown. 
The nest of this species is a simple affair, being merely 
