396 NATURE-STUDY- REVIEW [13:9— Dec, 1917 



I clever to talk right at you and yet you couldn't see me? Had 

 you stepped on me even I should not have moved for fear that 

 }^ou might have found my babies who are very near and unable 

 to fly ver}^ much yet. Our nest is in a little rounded hollow in 

 the ground close to the fence. It is lined with dried grass and 

 stubble and covered with brush so that while we cannot see 

 out ^-ery well neither can anyone else see in very easily. It is a 

 very cozy little home." 



"jNI}- name is Bob AVhite though people calle me quail because 

 I call out 'Tobacco- to-bac-co' instead of 'Bob-white' as my 

 eastern brothers do. I will tell you later why I always say 

 'tobacco'. I have lived right here on this A^ery place for a long 

 time, nearly as long as you. little four year old Mary, in fact, 

 I was bom here." 



"The ver}^ first thing that I remember I was tucked awa>^ 

 tightly in a tiny, pure white pointed egg and I wanted to stretch. 

 So I tried to but found that I couldn't. Then I pecked at the 

 shell a little and almost immediately someone ])ecked hard at it 

 on the outside and the first thing I knew there I was, a little baby 

 quail oiit of the shell with fourteen eggs about me and Mother 

 \^ery busy pecking now one and now another so that in a few hours 

 there were fifteen downy little balls of chestnut and buff colored 

 fluff in the nest with Mother." 



"The very next da}' I was oft", with m>' brothers and sisters 

 after Mother stretching my cramped legs, chirping, looking for 

 worms and seeds and tiny bugs. I noticed that all my brothers 

 were laughing at me. As soon as Mother noticed it, she came 

 over to me picked at my back a little and off' fell half of an egg 

 shell. I guess that I must have looked ver^^ funny and I had 

 to laugh myself. But I felt better and ran faster than e\'er, 

 and when Mother caught a nice fat long angle-worm and pecked 

 it into four pieces, I ran up quickly and gobbled one piece up. 

 Then I knew what that empty feeling inside of me meant." 



"Mother showed us some good seeds to eat and some bad ones 

 to let alone, then she showed us how to run very quickly and quietly, 

 to fly a little and to do just what I was doing when you came upon me 

 just now — to lie perfectly still in the leaves and hold my gamy 

 scent tightly under my feathers, so that yoin- trained dog, Prince, 

 with his nose only a few feet from me could not find me" 



"Everv da\' Mother or Father and sometimes l_)(^th would take 



