250 



The Outer's Book 



articles. In doing so I will briefly describe 

 each species and subspecies, giving its life- 

 history, the origin of its name, its range, and 

 how each may be distinguished from any of 

 its relatives, or, in other words, the key to 

 its identification. 



Bob-whites and quails are not difficult to 

 distinguish from the grouse or other birds 

 belonging to the Tetraonida, for the first not 

 only possess naked feet, but the nasal fossa 

 are likewise devoid of feathers. The Texas 

 bob-white, here shown in Figure 1, exhibits 

 this nakedness of the feet (including the 

 tarsi) and nostrils very well. When we come, 

 however, to draw hard and fast lines between 

 our bob-white and quails and the pheasant- 

 group (Phasianida) , it is by no means such 

 an easy matter. Without going into the 

 scientific particulars involving this point 

 for it would avail us nothing here I may say 

 that there are not a few birds in various parts 

 of the world, as in India, Ceylon, Africa, 

 China, Formosa, and other countries, which 

 present characters (both internal and external) 

 that render it a very puzzling matter for the 

 ornithologist to accurately determine to 

 which family that is the Odontophoridce or 

 the PhasianidcE they belong. However, I 

 have already shown how to distinguish the 

 former from our grouse (Tetraonidai) , and 

 there can certainly be no danger, in so far as 

 the readers of this article are concerned, of 

 mistaking any of our bob-whites or quails 

 for a guinea-fowl, much less for a wild 

 turkey or peacock, all of which latter are 

 phasianine birds and not perdicine species. 



It is needless to say that there is an 

 enormous literature extant on game birds 

 as a whole, and for a goodly share of this our 

 bob-whites and quails come in. They have 

 been written and talked about ever since the 

 first discovery of America, but it has only 

 been within comparatively recent time that 

 we have come to know these birds intimately. 



Any intelligent sportsman is more or less 

 familiar with the habits of this assemblage 

 of birds that are found where he habitually 

 hunts. There is, however, one interesting 

 habit that is exemplified on the part of the 

 male bob-white, and maybe on the part of 

 other species; I refer to the fact that the 

 male will, sometimes, for one reason or another 

 take upon himself the duty of incubation. 

 An example of this is well shown in Figure 2 

 of this Part. Should hatching take place 

 while the eggs are being covered by the male, 

 it would be interesting to know how he 

 would behave. I believe that he would lead 

 off the chicks just like the hen bird, and 

 remain near the nest until her return, which, 

 under ordinary circumstances and she were 



able and living would not be for any great 

 length of time. 



Among the game birds of the world there 

 are not a few instances where the male of 

 the species assists in incubation. In the 

 case of our bob-whites, Wilson, the ornith- 

 ologist, did not appear to know, in so far 

 as we can judge from his published writings, 

 that the male quail assisted in the matter of 

 incubation. Audubon knew about it, and 

 says in his "great work" that "The female 

 prepares a nest composed of grasses, arranged 

 in a circular form, leaving an entrance not 

 unlike that of a common oven. It is placed 

 at the foot of a tuft of rank grass (see Fig. 2) 

 or some closed stalks of corn, and is partly 

 sunk in the ground. The eggs are from ten 

 to eighteen, rather sharp at the smaller end, 

 and of a pure white. The male at times 

 assists in hatching them." This very indiffer- 

 ent description will probably stand pretty 

 well for one case in several hundred, and 

 it would appear that Audubon met with 

 but few nests of this species in his rambles. 

 He reserved most of the space that he 

 devoted to the life-history of this famous 

 little game bird, to describe the capture of it 

 by driving bevies of them into nets. This 

 practice seemed to amuse him very much 

 indeed, as it might the average market-man 

 today, were "quails" plenty enough for them 

 to resort to it. 



This is what Audubon says on this point 

 when endeavoring to describe the note of 

 the bob-white: "A fancied similarity to the 

 words 'bob-white' renders this call familiar 

 to the sportsman and farmer; but these notes 

 are always preceded by another, easily 

 heard at a distance of thirty or forty yards. 

 The three together resemble the words 'Ah, 

 Bob White.' The first note is a kind of 

 asperation, and the last is very loud and clear. 

 This whistle is seldom heard after the breed- 

 ing season, during which an imitation of 

 the peculiar note of the female will make the 

 male fly toward the sportsman who may then 

 easily shoot it." 



This is interesting, apart from any other 

 consideration; for it gives us in his own words 

 the fact that he, Audubon, was not above 

 shooting quails during the breeding season. 

 But in a way he informs sportsmen (?) that 

 it can be done and how it can be done. In 

 this connection I may say that, in a previous 

 article in Outer's, I pointed out that Audubon 

 for the sake of amusement, used to go out at 

 night with some negroes and catch dozens of 

 prairie chickens or pinnated grouse in a fish 

 seine, apparently only for such "sport" as 

 he found in the practice, and he was only 

 deterred in such an outrageous procedure 

 by the merriment of the negroes (!), or as he 



