BOB WHITE. 23 
by which the young are called together is very low and 
soft, a kind of twitter. Should the nest be disturbed 
before the young are hatched, or if the eggs are handled, 
it is usually deserted by the birds. The chicks are able to 
fly a little almost as soon as they emerge from the egg, 
and (except in the northern part of the birds’ dispersion) 
when they are a few weeks old the male assumes the en- 
tire charge of his little family,and the female begins to lay 
again her second complement of eggs, which, as a rule, 
does not average as large a number as the first. In the 
north one brood is generally all that is raised. The 
chicks are fed by the parents on insects, but, like all 
young gallinaceous birds, they are constantly in motion 
and pick at everything, trying this and that small object 
with great and ceaseless industry, and they soon begin 
to swallow seeds, grains of different sorts, and berries. 
As they grow older they become habituated to the usual 
food of the adults, which consists of grain of all kinds, 
especially buckwheat, of which this bird is particularly 
fond, wild pease, and the seeds of various plants, with 
berries, when there are any. Quail will also eat grapes, 
small acorns, and beech-nuts. The parents lead their 
brood to the stubbles and pick up the grain that had 
been dropped during the harvest of the previous sum- 
mer, and return at night to the thickets for conceal- 
ment and protection. They usually visit the fields in the 
early morning and again in the afternoon, but late in 
the year, if the weather is cold, they frequently pass the 
entire day in the open, huddled together after feeding, 
basking in the comfortable warmth of the sun’s rays. 
The young attain their full growth in the autumn, the 
period varying according as the spring has been favora- 
ble or not for incubation, as sometimes the winter 
lingers so late as to prevent the nesting season from 
