396 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



this is not much the case in New England ; though, from the 

 accidental appearance of a covey in the Berkshire hills, and in 

 those of New Hampshire beyond the isothermal lines which 

 mark the northern range of these birds, it may be inferred that 

 they are very vagrant in their disposition. In Delaware and 

 Maryland, however, coveys of Quail often appear, who are dis- 

 tinctively called by the sportsmen there " runners." On the 

 western side of the Chesapeake, an old sportsman assured me 

 that covey after covej 1 ' passed through the country, where food 

 and shelter were abundant, crossing the peninsula on foot, but 

 often perishing by the wholesale in attempting to pass the 

 wider inlets, and he added in proof of this that he had taken 

 as many as forty at a time from the middle of the river near 

 his house. 



To return to their habits here : At night, for at least many 

 days in succession, the Quail select the same spot to sleep in, 

 more usually in low ground, where the long grass affords shel- 

 ter and warmth. There they encamp, not huddled together 

 promiscuously and unadvisedly, but shoulder to shoulder in a 

 circle, with their heads out, so that in the event of a sudden 

 surprise they escape rapidly, and in every direction, without 

 difficult}^. Such roosting-places may very often be found self- 

 attesting, from the arrangement and accumulation of hard, 

 round faeces. Though they rarely take to wing except when 

 surprised, they almost invariably do so on leaving their roost in 

 the morning, which they do at an early hour. Let us suppose 

 ourselves to be accompanying Quail on a day's ramble. They 

 first fly from the swamp, perhaps four or five hundred yards, to 

 some copse adjoining a stubble-field. After a little toilet and 

 a few sips of dew, they breakfast on the edge of the grain- 

 field, keeping somewhat together, though each seeks for him- 

 self, making an occasional demand for halves upon the lucky 

 finder of some luscious morsel. Half an hour after sunrise, 

 the birds have passed through the long field more rapidty than 

 usual, since the dew is not heavy, owing to a breeze in the 

 night. Otherwise, they might have skirted the field to avoid 

 getting wet, which they much dislike. Having reached a fal- 



