THE AMERICAN QUAIL, OR VIRGINIA 

 PARTRIDGE. 



Ortyx Virginianus. Perdix Virginianus. 



NOVEMBER is upon us hearty, brown, healthful Novem- 

 ber, harbinger of his best joys to the ardent sportsman, 

 and best beloved to him of all the months of the great 

 annual cycle ; November, with its clear, bracing, west- 

 ern breezes ; its sun, less burning, but how far more 

 beautiful than that of fierce July, as tempered now and 

 softened by the rich, golden haze of Indian summer, 

 quenching his torrent rays in its mellow, liquid lustre, 

 and robing the distant hills with wreaths of purple light, 

 half mist, half shrouded sunshine ; November, with its 

 wheat and buckwheat stubbles, golden or bloody red ; 

 with its sere maize leaves rustling in the breeze, whence 

 the quail pipes incessant ; with its gay w r oodlands flaunt- 

 ing in their many-colored garb of glory ; with its waters 

 more clearly calm, more brilliantly transparent than 

 those of any other season ; November, when the farmer's 

 toils have rendered their reward, and his reaped harvests 

 glut his teeming garners, so* that he too, like the pent 



