284 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



as a rule, we are unaware of the presence of one of these birds 

 until, with a whirring of short, stiff rounded wings it springs 

 from the ground at our feet. It is this habit of 'lying close/ 

 as sportsmen term it, in connection with their excellent flesh, 

 which makes the members of this family the favorites of the 

 hunter and epicure and only the most stringent protective 

 measures will prevent their extinction as their haunts become 

 settled." 



The name Bob-white is derived from the familiar utter- 

 ance of the bird. In the north and west it is called the quail 

 and in the south the partridge. The name quail properly 

 belongs to a smaller migratory bird of a different genus, found 

 in the old world, the quail of the Bible story; while partridge 

 in New England universally applies to the ruffed-grouse, is 

 strictly the name of another old world genus, though also 

 used to designate the group to which Bob-whites, quail, part- 

 ridges and other closely related birds belong. 



The bill of the adult Bob-white is stout, hen-like and 

 black ; eye, dark hazel ; chin, throat, forehead and line through 

 the eyes and along the sides of the neck, white ; black band 

 across the top of the head, extending backward on the sides, 

 and from the bill below the eyes, crossing on the lower part of 

 the throat; back, scapulars and lesser coverts, red brown, in- 

 termixed with ash and sprinkled with black; wings plain 

 dusky; tail ash, sprinkled with reddish brown; lower parts of 

 the breast and belly pale yellowish white ; legs very pale ash. 

 The color of the adult female is duller, black band on the 

 breast indistinct, and the throat is buff instead of white. 



The range of the Bob-whites extends north through the 

 eastern United States and southern Ontario, Canada ; west to 

 eastern Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory and 

 eastern Texas; and south to Georgia, Alabama and the other 

 Gulf States. It is one of the most widely distributed of our 

 game birds. It is found everywhere, more or less abundantly 

 in suitable places within the United States, east of the Mis- 

 souri and Mississippi Rivers, except in Florida, where it is re- 

 placed by the Florida Bob-white. It is not a migrant. Mr. 

 Wells W. -Cooke says that "Many a cardinal, Carolina wren 

 and Bob-white rounds out its whole contented life within ten 



