THE FLORIDA BOB WHITE. 
HIS is a small, dark race of the common Bob White, 
and is found throughout Florida, save possibly the 
extreme southern portions. It was formerly very abun- 
dant, and is still in some parts of the State, but from 
man’s persecutions and indiscriminate slaughter the birds 
have, in many districts, been greatly reduced in numbers. 
It is a very tame and confiding little creature and, like 
its Northern relative, prefers to live in the vicinity of 
man’s habitations, and rarely leaves the locality in which 
it was hatched. It keeps to the open woods or cultivated 
grounds in the neighborhood of clumps of bushes or 
thickets of various sorts, into which it can escape from - 
its pursuers. The nesting season in some localities be- 
gins very early, sometimes by the middle of February, 
but probably April is the month when incubation gen- 
erally commences, and young birds have been met with 
early in July. Two broods are raised in a season, and 
the nest is placed in some retired spot hidden by a pal- 
metto or by thick grass and weeds. 
Their habits are the same as those of the Northern 
bird, and they lie well before the dog, and have all the 
game qualities of our familiar Bob White. The average 
number of eggs is not so large as that found in the nests 
of their relative, and from ten to fourteen may be con- 
sidered the extremes, though sometimes many more 
than the maximum given are obtained. They resemble 
in every respect those of Bob White. 
On account of the number of broods each pair will 
32 
