22 BULLETIN - 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The ability of quail to hide and escape detection under the most 

 scanty protection is truly remarkable. One is often surprised to see 

 a bird or a whole covey arise from a spot that seems to offer no chance 

 for concealment. Their ability to withhold their scent under such 

 circumstances will be referred to later. Mr. Forbush (1927) relates 

 some interesting observations on a bobwhite that spent a winter in 

 his yard and became quite tame. He escaped the notice of a wan- 

 dering dog by squatting on bare ground. A slow, quiet settling of 

 his whole body was followed by the widening of the shoulders and an 

 indrawing of the head, and, shaking out his feathers, be squatted on 

 the snowy ground " as flat as a pancake." The white markings of 

 the throat and head were cunningly concealed, the top of the head 

 projecting barely enough beyond the general outline to allow him a 

 comprehensive view of his surroundings. Once he effaced himself 

 from sight in a little hollow at the foot of a tree, where he was 

 invisible even through a glass at 40 feet away, until he " grew " out 

 of the ground and walked away. Again he faded from view in a 

 cleft in a stump less than 3 inches deep. Where there are dry leaves 

 or grass concealment is easy. 



Voice. — The most characteristic and best-known note of the bob- 

 white is the spring call, or challenge note, of the male, from which 

 its name is derived. It is heard all through the breeding season in 

 summer. It is subject to considerable individual variation and has 

 been variously interpreted as bob-white, more-wet, no-more-wet, peas- 

 most-ripe, buck-wheat-ripe, wha-whoi, sow-more-wheat, and others. 

 This call is subject to considerable variation; the number of the 

 preliminary bobs varies from one to two or rarely three; sometime 

 these first syllables are entirely omitted and we hear only the loud 

 white, which again may be shortened to whit. Aretas A. Saunders, 

 who has made a study of the voice of the bobwhite, has sent me some 

 elaborate notes on it. He says that the pitch in this call, counting 

 all his records, varies from G" to F" ', one tone less than an octave. 

 One 3-note call covered this whole range, but the 2-note calls generally 

 begin on A", most commonly have the white note begin a tone higher, 

 and slur up a single tone or a minor third. Sometimes the second note 

 gives more accent and time to the first part of the slur, and sometimes 

 the lower note of the slur is on the same pitch as the first note. The 

 least range of pitch is shown in a 2-note call beginning on C, starting 

 the slur on C#, and ending on D. What he calls the slur comes, of 

 course, in the last, or white, note. 



The bobwhite note is almost invariably given while the bird is 

 standing on some favorite perch, but R. Bruce Horsfall writes to me 

 that while visiting in Virginia, on August 2, he saw a male bobwhite 

 fly across an old orchard, with few remaining trees but much uncut 



