THE COCK OF THE PLAINS, 
143 
about the size of a common fowl, of a wood-brown 
colour, with irregular chocolate blotches on the thick 
end. Period of incubation from twenty-one to twenty- 
two days. The young leave the nest a few hours 
after they are hatched.” ** In summer and autumn 
months these birds are seen in small troops, and in 
winter and spring in flocks of several hundreds. 
Plentiful throughout the barren, arid plains of the 
river Columbia; also in the interior of North Califor- 
nia. They do not esist on the hanks of the river 
Missouri; nor have they been seen in any place east 
of the ltocky Mountains.” 
