Part 3

The services of the Vultures as scavengers in removing offal render them valuable, and almost a necessity in southern cities. If an animal is killed and left exposed to view, the bird is sure to find out the spot in a very short time, and to make its appearance as if called by some magic spell from the empty air.

"Never stoops the soaring Vulture On his quarry in the desert, On the sick or wounded bison, But another Vulture, watching, From his high aerial lookout, Sees the downward plunge and follows; And a third pursues the second, Coming from the invisible ether, First a speck, and then a Vulture, Till the air is dark with pinions."

TO A WATER-FOWL.

Whither, 'midst falling dew While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far through their rosy depths dost thou pursue Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along.

Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocky billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side.

There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast-- The desert and illimitable air-- Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned, At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere, Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end; Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and nest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, Soon o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet on my heart Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shall not soon depart.

He who from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff. GAMBEL'S PARTRIDGE.]

GAMBEL'S PARTRIDGE.

Gambel's Partridge, of which comparatively little is known, is a characteristic game bird of Arizona and New Mexico, of rare beauty, and with habits similar to others of the species of which there are about two hundred. Mr. W. E. D. Scott found the species distributed throughout the entire Catalina region in Arizona below an altitude of 5,000 feet. The bird is also known as the Arizona Quail.

The nest is made in a depression in the ground sometimes without any lining. From eight to sixteen eggs are laid. They are most beautifully marked on a creamy-white ground with scattered spots and blotches of old gold, and sometimes light drab and chestnut red. In some specimens the gold coloring is so pronounced that it strongly suggests to the imagination that this quail feeds upon the grains of the precious metal which characterizes its home, and that the pigment is imparted to the eggs.

After the nesting season these birds commonly gather in "coveys" or bevies, usually composed of the members of but one family. As a rule they are terrestrial, but may take to trees when flushed. They are game birds _par excellence_, and, says Chapman, trusting to the concealment afforded by their dull colors, attempt to avoid detection by hiding rather than by flying. The flight is rapid and accompanied by a startling whirr, caused by the quick strokes of their small, concave, stiff-feathered wings. They roost on the ground, tail to tail, with heads pointing outward; "a bunch of closely huddled forms--a living bomb whose explosion is scarcely less startling than that of dynamite manufacture."

The Partridge is on all hands admitted to be wholly harmless, and at times beneficial to the agriculturist. It is an undoubted fact that it thrives with the highest system of cultivation, and the lands that are the most carefully tilled, and bear the greatest quantity of grain and green crops, generally produce the greatest number of Partridges.

SUMMARY.

Page 43.

#AMERICAN OSPREY.#--_Pandion paliaetus carolinensis._

RANGE--North America; breeds from Florida to Labrador; winters from South Carolina to northern South America.

NEST--Generally in a tree, thirty to fifty feet from the ground, rarely on the ground.

EGGS--Two to four; generally buffy white, heavily marked with chocolate.

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Page 48.

#SORA RAIL.#--_Porzana carolina._

RANGE--Temperate North America, south to the West Indies and northern South America.

NEST--Of grass and reeds, placed on the ground in a tussock of grass, where there is a growth of briers.

EGGS--From seven to fourteen; of a ground color, of dark cream or drab, with reddish brown spots.

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Page 51.

#KENTUCKY WARBLER.#--_Geothlypis formosa._

RANGE--Eastern United States; breeds from the Gulf States to Iowa and Connecticut; winters in Central America.

NEST--Bulky, of twigs and rootlets, firmly wrapped with leaves, on or near the ground.

EGGS--Four or five; white or grayish white, speckled or blotched with rufous.

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Page 55.

#RED-BREASTED MERGANSER.#--_Merganser Serrator._

RANGE--Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere; in America breeds from northern Illinois and New Brunswick northward to the arctic regions; winters southward to Cuba.

NEST--Of leaves, grasses, mosses, etc., lined with down, on the ground near water, among rocks or scrubby bushes.

EGGS--Six to twelve; creamy buff.

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Page 60.

#YELLOW LEGS.#--_Totanus flavipes._

RANGE--North America, breeding chiefly in the interior from Minnesota, northern Illinois, Ontario County, N. Y., northward to the Arctic regions; winters from the Gulf States to Patagonia.

EGGS--Three or four; buffy, spotted or blotched with dark madder--or van dyke--brown and purplish gray.

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Page 61.

#SKYLARK.#--_Alauda arvensis._

RANGE--Europe and portions of Asia and Africa; accidental in the Bermudas and in Greenland.

NEST--Placed on the ground, in meadows or open grassy places, sheltered by a tuft of grass; the materials are grasses, plant stems, and a few chance leaves.

EGGS--Three to five, of varying form, color, and size.

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Page 66.

#WILSON'S PHALAROPE.#--_Phalaropus tricolor._

RANGE--Temperate North America, breeding from northern Illinois and Utah northward to the Saskatchewan region; south in winter to Brazil and Patagonia.

NEST--A shallow depression in soft earth, lined with a thin layer of fragments of grass.

EGGS--Three to four; cream buff or buffy white, heavily blotched with deep chocolate.

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Page 70.

#EVENING GROSBEAK.#--_Cocothraustes vespertina._

RANGE--Interior of North America, from Manitoba northward; southeastward in winter to the upper Mississippi Valley and casually to the northern Atlantic States.

NEST--Of small twigs, lined with bark, hair, or rootlets, placed within twenty feet of the ground.

EGGS--Three or four; greenish, blotched with pale brown.

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Page 73.

#TURKEY VULTURE.#--_Catharista Atrata._

RANGE--Temperate America, from New Jersey southward to Patagonia.

NEST--In hollow stump or log, or on ground beneath bushes or palmettos.

EGGS--One to three; dull white, spotted and blotched with chocolate marking.

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Page 78.

#GAMBEL'S PARTRIDGE.#--_Callipepla gambeli._

RANGE--Northwestern Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah, and western Utah and western Texas.

NEST--Placed on the ground, sometimes without any lining.

EGGS--From eight to sixteen.