102 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
listens, but draws away; she listens, but only stands 
irresolute; she listens, and, listening, yields. 
“They must prepare for new duties. With deep 
sense of responsibility and earnest solicitude the pair 
now cast about for a suitable spot for their home. They 
search through the tall, rank herbage alongside the 
stream, through the willow copses, among fallen moss- 
covered logs that are scattered around the glen, and 
at length make up their minds. Little more is needed 
than to fix upon the spot, for the nest is a simple affair, 
the work of a few hours, perhaps, scratching a suitable 
depression and lining it with a few dried grasses 
pressed together. Day by day eggs are laid, till a dozen 
or more fill the nest. They cannot be distinguished 
from those of the California quail. They measure an 
inch and a quarter in length by an inch in breadth, 
and are almost pyramidal in shape, the larger end flat- 
tish and very broad, the other narrow and pointed. 
The color is a buff, or rich cream, dotted and spotted 
all over with bright brown, and splashed here and 
there with large blotches of the same. When the fe- 
male is not pressed to lay, the pair ramble about to- 
gether in close company until the complement is fin- 
ished. Then she gives up all recreation, grown already 
quite sober and maternal, and resolutely sets about her 
long tour of duty. But she is not forgotten because she 
can no longer share the idle pleasures of her lord. 
Mounted on a stump or bush near by, he stands watch, 
and continually solaces her with the best music he can 
make. It is not very harmonious, to be sure; in fact, 
