The Bob White 285 



miles of its birthplace." While this is true, it is also true that 

 in the autumn Bob-whites seem possessed with a desire to 

 migrate. They become restless and bewildered. Hunters 

 say they are crazy. At such times I have known them to 

 come into the city. In the autumn of 1903 I whistled to one 

 that was just across the street from Elmwood and it answered 

 my call and came to within a few feet of where I was stand- 

 ing on our front lawn ; and then, I remembered the lines of 

 Henry T. Stanton : 



"Ah, I hear it, and I see it 



Sitting on the rail. 

 Is it real, can it be it, 



My old friend the quail? 

 Out of season, out of cover, 

 Turned a migrant, turned a rover, 



Sitting boldly in my sight, 



Calling: 'White Bob White! 

 Bob-Bob White 

 Bob White?'" 



The mating season commences in April and nidification 

 begins usually about the first of May. The nest is always 

 placed upon the ground and is a very simple affair. It may be 

 found alongside a patch of overhanging weeds, a tall bunch of 

 grass, under a small bush or in a briar patch, by the side of the 

 fence. One at Buzzard's Roost was built in the grass, not 

 more than ten feet from the road where we were constantly 

 passing by, and so that we could see the sitting quail and she 

 could see us. The female builds the nest, and in building exca- 

 vates a saucer-shaped cavity in the ground and slightly lines it 

 with grasses and vegetable trash. Usually the nest is open, 

 but sometimes it is roughly arched. In it are laid from ten to 

 twenty dull white ovate eggs, often partially stained a buffy 

 yellow by contact with the grass on which they lie. Fifteen 

 may be considered a fair average, but as many as thirty-seven 

 eggs have been found in a nest. 



It is well known that some Bob-whites are polygamous 

 and it is believed by some that where large clutches of eggs 

 are found in a nest they are the product of two or more fe- 

 males. In his Life and Immortality, Mr. Thomas G. Gentry 



