BOB- WHITE 



87 



ing the observer away from her young with signs 

 of great distress. Wilson, of the classic trium- 

 virate, Audubon, Wilson, and Nuttall, gives a 

 most interesting experience of his with a Par- 

 tridge who had only one young bird, and on being 

 overtaken, after fluttering before him for a mo- 

 ment, " suddenly darting toward the young one, 

 seized it in her bill and flew off." 



Bob-white : Colinus 



virginianus. 



Adult male, upj^er parts wood-brown ; throat and line from 

 bill to neck white ; black patch on breast ; rest of under parts 

 whitish barred with black. Adult female, similar, but throat 

 buffy, and black of breast less or absent. Length, 10 inches. 



Geographic Distribution. — Eastern United States from 

 southern Maine and the Dakotas southward to the Gulf of 

 Mexico ; resident Avherever found. 



This beautiful bird is known mainly as ' Quail 

 on toast,' but in use- 

 fulness and interest 

 of habit it holds a 

 high place among 

 our birds. As a 

 weed-seed and in- 

 sect destroyer it is 

 of such economic 

 importance that in 

 Wisconsin, where 

 it has been practi- 

 cally exterminated, 

 attempts have recently been made to reestablish it. 



Fig. 14. 

 Bob-white. 



