213 AMEKICAN" GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



are able to follow their mother. They are exceedingly 

 cautions little creatures, for the moment the old bird 

 sounds an alarm they scatter in every direction and 

 hide in the grass until the reassuring voice of their 

 guardian summons them to her side. If a dog or a cat 

 approaches the brood, the mother pretends to be wounded, 

 and flutters far enough ahead of it to keep out of harm's 

 reach, and when she has led it some distance away from 

 tliem, she rises in the air with a cluck of joy and tri- 

 umph, and returns to lier family, which she soon gathers 

 about her by endearing calls. Although the quail is 

 a timid bird, yet it has been known to associate with 

 the barn -yard fowl, especially in winter, and to remain 

 around the outhouses of a farm for weeks at a time. Its 

 eggs have also been hatched by a hen, and the chicks fol- 

 lowed their foster mother until the ensuing spring, when, 

 through some overpowering instinct of nature, they left 

 her and sought their free companions. Instances are 

 known, however, in which the birds were not only con- 

 tent to remain in confinement, but also to lay eggs which 

 proved fertile when hatched under a bantam hen or either 

 of the parent quails. It is often rather difficult for a 

 captive female to hatch her own eggs, as the male dallies 

 with her so much, and uses all his powers of fascination 

 to such an extent, that he frequently induces her to de- 

 sert her nest, in order to prolong the love season. The 

 Virginia quail has two broods in a year if the weather 

 is fine and the summer long, but in the more northern 

 regions it raises only one, unless the first eggs laid should 

 be destroyed, and then it may try to raise another. 

 While the female is hatching, her mate sits on a shrub 

 or a fence close by, and whistles his soft notes of "Bob 

 AYhite" by the hour, as if he Avere encouraging or com- 

 forting her Avith Avords of endearment. Although the 

 bird deriA^es its ordinary name from these tAvo notes, yet 

 H has a variety of others which it uses when a bcA-y 



