TEXAS BOBWHITE 35 



Nesting. — Major Bendire (1892) says: 



The favorite nesting site of the Texan Bob White is a bunch of sedge grass. 

 A slight cavity is made in the center, this is lined with a few straws and 

 arched over with similar material. Sometimes a covered way or tunnel leads 

 to the entrance of the nest. Occasionally a nest is placed under a bush and 

 not covered or arched. Two broods are usually raised in a season, and even 

 three at times. 



Mr. Simmons (1925) mentions a number of other nesting sites as 

 follows : 



Nest on ground along fencerows, in small dewberry thickets, in prickly-pear 

 beds, in brushy mesquite lands or bushy, grassy pastures, in thick tussocks or 

 clumps of big grass, along weedy fence lines or roadsides, or in the middle of 

 cotton or corn fields on the rolling prairies ; usually well hidden by a small bush 

 or by weeds and prairie grasses ; occasionally placed in a f encerow with over- 

 hanging vines or beside a stone wall or a log. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the Texas bobwhite are indistinguishable from 

 those of the eastern bird. From 10 to 15 eggs constitute the usual 

 set, but 18 or 19 are occasionally laid, and Bendire (1892) states that 

 H. P. Attwater once found 33 eggs in a nest. Probably this large 

 set was the product of two females. According to Bendire (1892), 

 " two broods are usually raised in a season, and even three at times." 

 The measurements of 59 eggs, in the United States National Museum, 

 average 30 by 24 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 32 by 25, 30 by 25.5, and 27.5 by 22 millimeters. 



Plumages. — The molts and plumages correspond to those of the 

 eastern bobwhite, but Dr. Jonathan D wight (1900) says that "the 

 juvenal plumage is browner than in virginianus." 



Food. — Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey (1928) writes: 



The Bob White is of special agricultural value because it destroys a large 

 amount of weed seed and a considerable number of insects. Half of its food 

 is weed seed, only a fourth grain — mainly from the stubble fields — and about 

 a tenth wild fruits. Fifteen per cent is composed of insects, including several 

 of the most serious pests of agriculture. It feeds freely upon Colorado potato 

 beetles and chinch bugs, and eats also grasshoppers, cucumber beetles, wire- 

 worms, billbugs, clover-leaf weevils, the Mexican cotton-boll weevils, army 

 worms, cotton worms, cutworms, and Rocky Mountain locusts. 



Behavior. — Mr. Simmons (1925) says: 



Observed singly, in pairs in summer, or by threes and fours ; in winter, 

 from middle fall to early spring, in coveys or bevies of from 10 to 30, breaking 

 up for the breeding season and reassembling as soon as it is over. Rather shy 

 and difficult to find after the hunting season has opened. During summer days 

 the birds seek shelter under the bushes which dot the pastures ; winter days, 

 in scattered brush heaps and tiny hollows. On spring and summer nights they 

 generally roost in the open fields ; on fall and winter nights, roost under cover, 

 usually in lowlands. When frightened, or when preparing to sleep and keep 

 warm, a covey arranges itself in a elose-huddled circle, heads out from center ; 

 when approach is too close, the birds burst in all directions, making it very 



