The AMERICAN PARTRIDGES (_Odontophori_) are delicately-framed birds, possessing a short high beak, compressed at its sides, high, much arched, and furnished at its margin with two strong, tooth-like projections. The moderately long tail is composed of twelve feathers, the external of which are frequently much shortened; the fourth, fifth, and sixth quills of the very decidedly-rounded wings exceed the rest in length; the tarsi are high, without a spur, but the toes are long and furnished with long, sharp claws. The thick plumage is more or less brilliantly coloured and always beautifully marked; some species have a bare patch around the eye. All the members of this group are strictly American, and by far the greater number of them are natives of that portion of the continent lying between 30° north latitude and the equator. Four species are now included in the fauna of North America, and four have been discovered in Brazil; some few extend their range to the larger of the West Indian Islands, and several others inhabit the vast mountain ranges of the Andes. The American Partridges form a large and well-defined group, distinguishable from the Partridges and Quails of the Old World by the absence of any spur, or spur-like appendage on the tarsi, and by the tooth-like processes in the upper mandible. They are pugnacious in their disposition, seem arboreal in their habits, and deposit their eggs in a depression of the ground or in a very inartificial nest. Their food consists of seeds, berries, fruits, and the tender leaves of grass and other vegetables. Their flesh is white, tender, and well flavoured. In the morning and evening twilight they perch on a low branch near each other, when the males frequently give utterance to their cries, which reverberate through the forest to a great distance. If alarmed when on the ground, they usually hasten to some neighbouring branch, along which they run, and crouching down conceal themselves amongst the foliage. The female lays from eight to fifteen eggs. THE CAPUEIRA PARTRIDGE.