CHAPTER XXV 



The Quail: Colinus Virginidnus 



ON THE GROUND 



WITH the combined meadows, 

 wheat fields and orchards of the 

 Stanley and Aspy farms, as well as 

 a mile-stretch of grassy river-bank 

 from' which to choose, Mrs. Bob 

 White paid Mr. Bob Black the com- 

 pliment of coming within a rod of 

 his engine-house, two yards from 

 his foot-path to select her building 

 site. When Bob pointed out the 

 nest to me I was amazed.. 



The churning of the big engine 

 that furnished power to pump 

 many wells, some of them half a 

 mile away, shook the earth under 

 her location. The exhaust pipe 

 shrieked until close it the explo- 

 sions were deafening. All day long the rod-lines rattled while 

 steady streams of oil poured into the big tanks. Bob, with 

 pointer always to heel, passed over the path many times a day. 

 I traversed it daily, while there was a steady flow of children's 

 feet rushing to the river to play and back to Bob to borrow fish- 

 lines, corks, hooks, knives anything a boy could use beside the 

 water. 



329 



NEST OF QUAIL 



Containing seventeen eggs 



