BIRDS. 



487 



Boston. Anywhere, where it is not hunted to death, it will live year after 

 year regardless of the fact that man is a near neighbor. 



Its nest is a rude affair, merely a few sticks and leaves huddled 

 together, and perhaps lined by some bits of bark; and in this it rem- a 

 family sometimes of fifteen. Beautiful are the little chicks with their 

 downy coat of brown, and active are they too. They follow their mother 

 about like chickens after a hen, and then when she sounds the note of 



Fig. 410. — Bob-white (Ortyx viryinianus). 



alarm, how instantly they disappear ! The mother at such a time has a 

 trick worth knowing. Even though you have been deceived by her a 

 hundred times, this time you think there can be no mistake ; she surely 

 has a broken leg or an injured wing. Certainly no sound bird could coun- 

 terfeit such agony, or give utterance to such notes of pain. She leads you 

 on in this way, and then suddenly her whole aspect changes, and with a 

 whirr she is off, and you realize that you have been sold exactly as you 

 have been so often before. You turn now to look for the chicks ; but not 

 one can you see. Their colors are exactly like the dead leaves that strew 



