18 



AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY 



birds, and they made their nest in the rank grass at the base of an old stump, 

 squarely in the middle of the pasture. Here they laved 14 eggs and the 

 photo shows you the nest on the day the last egg was laid. Sometimes the 

 Valley Quail will weave an arch of grass blades over her nest as does the 

 Bob-white, but not often, and in this case the ornamentation was entirely 

 omitted, so that when Mother Quail left the nest the eggs were quite ex- 

 posed. Nothing happened to them, however, and all fourteen hatched. 



Two met an untimely end, but the remaining twelve and two parent 

 birds are still to be seen and heard around the place. Probably they will re- 

 main there and two or three pairs of them nest in the surrounding fields next 

 season. 



Photo by H. H. Dunn 



Nest of Valley Partridge. 



