Bob-white,
unlike the majority of our birds, does not migrate southward in winter; the
whole covey, unless they are killed, spend the whole year near the spot where
they were born, feeding on the fallen grain, seeds, and various kinds of fruit.
In hard winters, they become very tame, and if fed regularly, come to the
barnyard almost like poultry. Most people are only too familiar with this bird,
but not as he looks in life. Then he is full of energy and spirit; his pure
white throat shows against the black of his head, and his rich reddish brown
wings are ready to carry him off with a whirr that startles one. For one that
we see alive, we see a thousand hanging, bloody and bedraggled, in the markets.
Few people who become really acquainted with Bob-white, who see him sitting on
a stone wall calling his name, or see his mate hurrying her little ones over
the road into the blackberry vines, will care to make another meal off his
little body. We must consider not only the wrong, if we acknowledge it to be
one, done to the individual quail whose life has been taken, but the danger
that threatens his whole race. The cheerful Bob-white is already a much rarer
sound than it used to be, and the bird has many other dangers to contend
against besides the pot-hunter's gun.
The greatest
peril that besets quail in the North is the occasional midwinter blizzard,
followed by intense cold. The quail at night huddle close together on the
ground, their tails touching and their heads pointing out in a circle. After a
great storm in a recent winter, melting snow exposed a circle of quail,
surprised and buried by the snow, like the people of Pompeii buried under the
falling ashes.
In May, the
male begins to whistle the two or three clear notes which have been translated
into "Bob-white," or "More wet." This call is not only a
summons to the female, but also a challenge to other males; if one hides nearby
and imitates the whistle accurately enough, a sudden flight will sometimes
bring the angry bird directly to the spot. The surprise of the visitor is then
amusing enough. Stone walls, fences, the low limbs of trees are favorite
perches for the male, and his cheerful call has long been a familiar sound in
farming country, from Massachusetts southward.
The nest is
placed in some tangle of blackberry vines, along the edge of a field, and is a
sight worth a long journey to see. The pure white eggs, often as many as
fifteen, are laid close together in such a manner that the little body of the female
may cover and warm them all. When the young are hatched, they are covered with
down, and run at once, like chickens, and unlike the little blind naked young
which we see in the nests of song birds. They follow their mother through the
tangled grass or low bushes, feeding on fruit and insects, and later on the
grain in the stubble fields. The whole family keep together, even when the
young are able to care for themselves. When they hear any danger approaching, they
keep close to the ground, relying on their brown coloring to conceal them. If
the danger comes too near, they are off in half a dozen directions, over walls
and bushes, coming quickly to earth again when they see some sheltering covert.
Then, after an interval, one hears a note something like a guinea hen's,
issuing from different parts of the field. Guided by these sounds, the whole
covey reassemble.
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