142 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



When a dog approaches a young family of Quails, the note of 

 alarm is sounded, and the mother bird feigning to be wounded, 

 flutters just before the dog, but is careful to keep out of reach, but 

 she usually succeeds in taking the dog a long way from her brood, 

 when by a circuitous route she returns and gathers together the 

 scared fugitives, and proceeds to hunt for food for her growing 

 family. 



They are both grain and insect eating birds, and occasionally 

 indulge in a dessert of berries. They are very much averse to be- 

 coming domesticated, yet they come around the house and out- 

 buildings in search of food. We have seen a statement that some- 

 times, when hatched out by hens, they would run with her and 

 winter with the barnyard fowls, but would invariably leave in the 

 spring, under the irrepressible instincts of their nature, implanted 

 by its Creator. 



Eggs of the hen have been placed under the Quail and hatched 

 by her, and in one instance, at least, the chickens ran with the 

 Quail till they were larger than the Quail. They were then lost 

 sight of — were probably caught by hawks, or some wild animal 

 whose epicurean tastes were partial to birds. Though they raise 

 many young, the ravages of the remorseless hunters and the money- 

 loving trappers, together with hard winters and deep snows long 

 continued, thin out their ranks continually. They are a remarka- 

 bly plump bird, and their flesh furnishes delicate morsels to the 

 fastidious lover of wild game. 



In the summer when his mate is sitting, and in the early fall 

 the Quail sits on the fence or a low tree, and whistles Bob White 

 for an hour at a time. They have quite a variety of notes, which 

 they utter when several of them meet, as if in social converse, are 

 pleasant and agreeable companions, and decidedly the farmers' 

 friends, for they eat quantities of those dreaded chinch bugs, whose 

 little suckers lay waste our wheat fields. No sport is more de- 

 lightful than Quail shooting, and there is only one legitimate 

 method by which this bird can be taken ; that is over dogs. It is, 

 too, one of the most healthful of all our field sports, as it can only 

 be indulged in after the heat of the summer has passed, and when 

 man needs the bracing and life-giving influence of the pure frosty 

 air for the purpose of recuperating his exhausted system. 



