56 THE QUAIL. 



young run about the moment after they make their appear- 

 ance, and follow their parents until spring, when, having 

 acquired their full beauty, they pair and breed. 



"The Partridge (Quail) rests at night on the ground, 

 either amongst the grass or under a bent log. The indi- 

 viduals which compose the flock form a ring, and moving 

 backwards, approach each other until their bodies are nearly 

 in contact. This arrangement enables the whole covey to 

 take wing when suddenly alarmed, each flying off in a 

 direct course, so as not to interfere with the rest." 



A straw-stack in the field in winter is a great attraction to 

 the Quail. Here flocks may be seen gleaning the stray ker- 

 nels of grain; and nowhere do their graceful movements 

 and quiet ways appear more winning. If unmolested and 

 treated with a little kindly consideration, they will come 

 even to the barn-yard and share the fare of the domestic 

 fowl. 



Being unsuspecting, and a bird of the fields, the pasture 

 and the orchard, it is the victim of many modes of capture. 

 Moving often in close flocks, many may be taken at a single 

 shot; a figure-four trap may take a number at a time. In 

 this way a lad of my acquaintance once took thirteen, feed- 

 ing them under the trap, and taking them out as they 

 were needed for the table. Audubon describes a method 

 of driving them into a net in large numbers. 



The predominant color of the Quail is a bright reddish- 

 brown, occasionally streaked with black, and again shading 

 into a beautiful gray, white beneath, crossed with zigzag 

 lines of black; throat of the female brownish-yellow, and 

 that of the male white. Smaller than a common bantam 

 hen, it cannot be mistaken in Eastern North America. 



It ranges throughout the Eastern United States to a little 

 north of Massachusetts, and into Canada West and Minne- 



