Tbe Quail 7 



into New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Cali- 

 fornia, Oregon, Washington, and British Colum- 

 bia. Throughout all this vast expanse of country 

 it thrives and fulfils its fourfold mission, as 

 martyr to the sporting spirit, food to the epi- 

 cure and the ailing, a joy to the lover of nature, 

 and as an extremely valuable assistant to the 

 agriculturist. The quail truly is a bird of the 

 farm, the camp-follower of the strong army of 

 agriculture which is so steadily conquering the 

 wild acres of the West. As the grain belt 

 broadens, so does the range of Bob White 

 extend. Himself no ploughman, yet he conscien- 

 tiously follows the plough. He is the gleaner, 

 who never reaps, who guards the growing crops, 

 who glories over a bounteous yield, yet is 

 content to watch and wait for those lost grains 

 which fall to him by right. Shrewd foe to the 

 foes of the farm, he hunts amid the crowding 

 stems for skulking insect peril ; and what he and 

 his swarming tribe fail to detect, can work but 

 small harm. His food consists of " mast," i.e. 

 small acorns, beechnuts ; grain of various kinds, 

 notably buckwheat, corn, and wheat, millet, and a 

 variety of small seeds, some of these being of the 

 most troublesome weeds. These, of course, are 

 the autumn and winter foods; at other seasons 

 the diet is chiefly insectivorous, including ants and 

 their larvae, potato beetles, chinch bugs, cotton 



