QUAILS. 213 



assembles or when it meets its kindred out for a prome- 

 nade. 



The quail eats grain, insects, and sometimes grapes, 

 but it IS content with a very small quantity of the latter 

 food, hence tlie statements made against the valley quail 

 in California, that it destroys vineyards, are partially 

 founded on a misapprehension. To poison it by the 

 thousands on this ground would therefore seem to be 

 wrong, for it often more than atones for any harm it 

 may do by the quantity of chinch bugs and other insects 

 it destroys, and which, but for it, would lay waste 

 the grain fields. The favorite feeding resorts of the 

 Bob Whites in fine weather are the stubble-fields 

 which are close to water. They frequent these each 

 morning and evening, but seek cover in the bushes, 

 hedges, and fences during the day. They lie in con- 

 cealment nearly all day in rainy weather, and if 

 tracked by dogs they try to escape by running, so that a 

 man may have to follow them for several hundred yards 

 before he can get near enough to flush them. They hie 

 to the timber for shelter in snowy weather, but return to 

 the fields m a day or two after tlie storm has ceased. If 

 they are flushed then they will fly for the first convenient 

 cover, and try to hide, or to escape by running through 

 the bushes as fast as they can. They often double like a 

 hare on such occasions, and give a dog — unless he is ex- 

 ceedingly staunch and keen-nosed — a great deal of 

 trouble to trail them. 



If one of the bevy calls soon after seeking shelter, a 

 person may expect all to flush again in a short time, as it 

 is a proof that they do not like their refuge. Should the 

 sportsman desire to know their place of retreat, in case 

 they keep silent, he can learn it by uttering their call, as 

 he is almost sure to receive an answer, especially in the 

 early part of the season. The call must be correct, how- 

 ever, or it will only make them scamper off. When the 



