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. * * * * * 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. * * * * * 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. * * * * * 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.