AVERY BIRD COLLECTION 37 



Two years ago, in June, my friend, Dr. J. M. Pickett, an 

 enthusiastic naturalist and a close observer of birds, in- 

 formed me that a male Bob White had been incubating 

 for some days, and that he constantly occupied the nest. 

 Desiring to be an eye witness of this to me unusual fact, 

 1 accompanied the Doctor to the oatfield, where the nest 

 was to be found. After a short search, he walking u^ 

 one land and I another, I almost trod on the devoted pat- 

 er-familias, when he fluttered from the nest and stood 

 eyeing me suspiciously, a few feet off. I could not be mis- 

 taken as to the sex ; the white markings of the head and 

 the white throat attested it. After a few seconds he flew 

 off to the adjoining woods, leaving a dozen white eggs 

 which, in spite of his assiduous care, were not to be 

 warmed into life. He sat upon them so long afterward 

 rhat Doctor Pickett, suspecting they were spoiled, broke 

 one of them, and finding they could not be hatched, de- 

 stroyed them all, and put an end to the useless incubation. 

 The female had evidently been killed, and the male return- 

 ing to the unoccupied nest had taken the place of his mate, 

 and filled it, till the eggs were destroyed." (1889c). 



"Abundant still. Resident. Non-migratory. Breeds 

 from first of May 'till first of October. Several broods 

 reared by one pair. The male assists in incubation. It 

 has been recorded by me, in a previous issue of the Amer- 

 ican Field, that a male Bob White was found incubating 

 by Dr. J. M. Pickett, of Cedarville, Alabama. I rode six 

 miles to witness this novel sight. The Doctor visited the 

 nest frequently for several weeks, and finding that the 

 eggs would not hatch, he destroyed them and relieved this 

 faithful pater-familias from his hopeless endeavor to rear 

 a brood. The female had perhaps been killed, and the 

 male, finding the nest unoccupied, took the place of his 

 mate, but after the eggs were cold and the embryos dead." 

 (1890d). 



The stom.ach of a specimen taken at Greensboro, Nov. 

 20, 1891, "contained peas and weed seeds." 



Among the old Avery papers on file in the State De- 

 partment of Archives and History, at Montgomery, is an 

 unpublished manuscript on the "Cause of the Scarcity of 

 Game," dated January 5, 1892. It is quoted below in full. 



