THE COCK OF THE PLAINS. 
143 
aboat the size of a com m on fowl, of a wood-lirown 
colour, with iixegular chocolate blotcliee on t\w tliick 
end. Period of incul>a tion from twenty-one to twenty- 
two dayf. The young leave the nest a few hours 
after they are hatched/* ** In summer and autumn 
months the^e blrd^ are seen in Buiall troopii, and in 
winter and spring in ilocks of several hundreds. 
Plentiful throughout the barren, and plains of the 
river Columbia ; also in the interior of North Califor- 
nia. They do not exist on the banks of the river 
Mis^onri ; nor liave they been seen in any place east 
of the Rocky Mountains/' 
