GROUSE, BOB-WHITES, ETC. 179 



of both sexes have the crown blacker, the bufl'y markings generally paler. 

 L., 10-00; W., 4-50; T., 2-50; B. from N., -35. 



Range. Eastern North America, from southern Maine and Minnesota 

 southward to the Gulf of Mexico ; resident wherever found. 



Washington, common P. E. Sing Sing, common P. E. Cambridge, com- 

 mon P. E. 



Nest, on the ground, in grassy fields. Eggs, ten to eighteen, white, 

 1-20 x -95. 



Taking the Old- World species of the genera Coturnix and Caccabis 

 as the types respectively of Quails and Partridges, neither of these lat- 

 ter names can properly be applied to our Colinus, which should there- 

 fore be known under the distinctive title Bob-white. 



During the nesting season Bob-whites are distributed in pairs 

 through clearings and cultivated fields. The members of a brood 

 constitute a bevy or covey, though occasionally two families or broods 

 are found in one bevy. In the fall they frequent grain fields, but as 

 winter approaches draw in toward thickets and wooded bottom-lands, 

 sometimes passing the coldest weather in boggy alder swamps. They 

 roost on the ground, tail to tail, with heads pointing outward ; a bunch 

 of closely huddled forms a living bomb whose explosion is scarcely 

 less startling than that of dynamite manufacture. 



Like most grass-inhabiting birds whose colors harmonize with their 

 surroundings, Bob-whites rely on this protective resemblance to escape 

 detection, and take wing only as a last resort. Sometimes they take 

 refuge in trees, but usually they head for wooded cover, where they 

 remain if the growth is dense, but if it is open they generally run the 

 moment they touch the ground. 



About May 1 they begin to pair, and rival males may then be seen 

 battling for mates like diminutive gamecocks. 



The name " Bob-white " originated in the spring call of the male. 

 Mounting a fence or ascending to the lower branches of a tree, he 

 whistles the two clear musical, ringing notes Sob-white ! Sometimes 

 they are preceded by a lower one which can be heard only when one 

 is near the singer. 



After the breeding season, when the birds are in bevies, their notes 

 are changed to what sportsmen term " scatter calls." Not long after 

 a bevy has been flushed and perhaps widely scattered, the members of 

 the disunited family may be heard signaling to one another in sweet 

 minor calls of two and three notes. When excited they also utter low, 

 twittering notes. 



289a. C. V. floridanus (Coues). FLORIDA BOB-WHITE; QUAIL ; PAR- 

 TRIDGE. Similar to the preceding, but smaller, the plumage throughout darker, 

 the black of the back more extensive, the rump and upper tail-coverts grayer, 



