CHAPTER XIX 



The Quail: Colinus Virginianus 



ON THE GROUND 



With the combined meadows, 

 wheat-fields and orchards of the 

 Stanley and Aspy farms, as well 

 as a mile-stretch of grassy river- 

 bank from which to choose, Mrs. 

 Bob White paid Mr. Bob Black 

 the compliment of coming up 

 within a rod of his engine-house, 

 two yards from his foot-path and 

 selecting her building site. When 

 Bob pointed out the nest to me I 

 was amazed. 



The churning of the great en- 

 gine that furnished power to 

 pump many wells, some of them 

 a half-mile away, shook the earth 

 under her location. The exhaust 

 pipe shrieked until close to it the explosions were deafening. All 

 day long the rod-lines rattled and steady streams of oil poured 

 into the big tanks. Bob, with pointer always to heel, passed over 

 the path many times a day. I traversed it daily, and there was a 

 steady flow of children's feet rushing down to the river to play 

 and back to Bob to borrow fish-lines, corks, hooks, knives, any- 

 thing a boy could use along the water. 



251 



NEST OF QUAIL 



Containing seventeen eggs 



