654 



GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



in showery hay-weather into the augury of *' more 2oef, 

 more ioet," continues uninterruptedly, at short intervals, 

 for more than half an hour at a time. Du Pratz says they 

 are known to the aborigines by the name of Jio-oui/ ('ho- 

 wee), which is also imitative of notes they sometimes ut- 

 ter, as I have heard, early in a morning, from a partly 

 domesticated covey. When assembled in a corner, and 

 about to take wing, the same low, chicken-like twittering, 

 as is employed by the mother towards her more tender 

 brood, is repeated; but when dispersed, by necessary oc- 

 cupation, or alarm, they are reassembled by a loud and oft 

 repeated call of anxious and social inquiry. This note, 

 ^ho-wcc, is however so strongly instinctive, as to be c>om- 

 monly uttered without occasion, by the male even in a 

 cage, surrounded by his kindred brood ; so that this ex- 

 pression, at stated times, is only one of general sympathy 

 and satisfaction like that of a singing bird uttered when 

 solitary and confined to a cage. 



In consequence of the shortness and concavity of its 

 wings, in common with most other birds of the same 

 family, the American Quail usually makes a loud whir- 

 ring noise in its flight, which is seldom long continu- 

 ed, always laborious, and generally so steady as to afford 

 no difficult mark for the expert sportsman. According 

 to the observations of Audubon, the flight of our Partridge 

 and Grous, when not hurried by alarm, is attended with 

 very little more noise than that of other birds. Whatev- 

 er may be the fact, when our little Partridges alight on 

 the ground, they often run out to very considerable dis- 

 tances, when not directly flushed, and endeavour to gain 

 the shelter of briars and low bushes, or instinctively squat 

 among the fallen leaves of the woods, from which, with 

 their brown livery, it is difficult to distinguish them. No 

 great destruction is made among them while on the wing, 



