22 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
The nest, placed upon the ground, is not much of 
a structure, merely a cavity hollowed out in the soil 
under a bush or fence, in pastures, or in the cotton rows 
in Southern States; in fact, in any spot where the locality 
affords the required concealment and privacy. It is well 
hidden and lined with grasses or stubble and sometimes 
arched over at the top with an aperture at the side, or 
again, entirely open. The eggs, which are a brilliant 
white, sharply pointed at one end, vary in number from 
twelve to twenty, and sometimes as many as thirty-two 
have been found, but, in such a case, more than one hen 
must have laid in the nest, or it may be that, when only 
one brood is raised in a season, the usual number may 
be considerably exceeded. The eggs are packed in 
closely with the pointed ends downward, and so skillfully 
are they arranged that once removed it is practically 
impossible to put them back again. In about twenty- 
four days the young appear, incubation having been per- 
formed by both sexes, chiefly, however, by the female, 
as is natural, and the comical little downy balls, which the 
chicks resemble, run about as soon as they escape from 
the egg. It is not often that the female is seen while 
incubation is progressing, but the male is frequently 
heard as from some stump or fence in the vicinity he 
whistles his clear “ Bob White.” In New England this 
call is interpreted as “more wet” or “no more wet,” 
according to the views of the wiseheads as to the proba- 
ble future condition of the weather. 
The young are faithfully cared for by both parents, and 
scatter immediately at the note of alarm sounded by the 
old birds, hiding themselves in the grass or under leaves, 
while the parents, by the usual artifice of lameness or 
inability to fly, draw the intruder away from the place, 
to return again when all danger has passed. The note 
