26 Bird Portraits 
and buried by the snow, like the people of Pompeii buried under 
the falling ashes. 
In May, the male begins to whistle the two or three clear notes 
which have been translated into “ Bob-white,” or “ More wet.” This 
call is not only a summons to the female, but also a challenge to 
other males; if one hides near by and imitates the whistle accurately 
enough, a sudden flight will sometimes bring the angry bird directly 
to the spot. The surprise of the visitor is then amusing enough. 
Stone walls, fences, the low limbs of trees are favorite perches for 
the male, and his cheerful call has long been a familiar sound in 
farming country, from Massachusetts southward. 
The nest is placed in some tangle of blackberry vines, along 
the edge of a field, and is a sight worth a long journey to see. The 
pure white eggs, often as many as fifteen, are laid close together 
in such a manner that the little body of the female may cover and 
warm them all. When the young are hatched, they are covered 
with down, and run at once, like chickens, and unlike the little blind 
naked young which we see in the nests of song birds. They follow 
their mother through the tangled grass or low bushes, feeding on 
fruit and insects, and later on the grain in the stubble fields. The 
whole family keep together, even when the young are able to care 
for themselves. When they hear any danger approaching, they keep 
close to the ground, relying on their brown coloring to conceal them. 
If the danger comes too near, they are off in half a dozen directions, 
over walls and bushes, coming quickly to earth again when they 
see some sheltering covert. Then, after an interval, one hears a note 
something like a guinea hen’s, issuing from different parts of the 
field. Guided by these sounds, the whole covey reassemble. 
