362 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



4' \ 



is a rare bird in all portions of the State, excepting Long Island, the lower 

 Hudson valley, and the Delaware valley. Numerous importations of 

 southern or western birds have done little, if any, permanent good in restor- 

 ing its former abundance. Every year we hear of broods of bobwhites 

 reared in western or central New York and the Upper Hudson valley, but 

 the severity of our winters, and the depredations of cats and other predacious 

 animals, and the persecution of gunners and pot hunters, combine to keep 

 the birds continually in check. 



Haunts and habits. The Bobwhite prefers open fields of grass or stubble 

 or fallow, with brush>' coverts near at hand as a refuge from the storm and 



from its enemies. They are wholly 

 beneficial in habits, in the spring and 

 summer partaking largely of insect 

 diet and in the fall and winter of 

 weed seeds and waste grain. In May 

 the male mounts some fence post, 

 stone or other elevated object, and 

 whistles his iaxniliar Bob-white, orAk, 

 Bob-white, which is variously trans- 

 lated by the country people into 

 "more wet," or "no more wet; "or 

 " pease most ripe ," and "Buckwheat," 

 or "Good buckwheat." In the mating 

 season the cocks often fight fiercely 

 but they are not polygamous and the 

 male helps at incubation, sometimes 

 continuing in charge of the nest and yoving when the female has been acci- 

 dentally killed. The nest is placed upon the ground under a small bush, or 

 bunch of grass, or in a briar patch, or beside the fence between cultivated 

 fields. It is composed of dry hard grasses and bits of grain stubble. The eggs 

 are from 10 to 18 in number, pure white in color, and pyriform in shape, 

 being qmte pointed at the smaller end. Occasionally as many as 37 eggs 

 have been found in one nest, undoubtedly the laying of two or more hens. 

 The time of incubation is about 24 days [Bendire]. The young follow 

 their mother from the nest in a day or two after hatching. They are covered 



■'J 



■i <ioi ' 





Photo by L. S. Hortun 

 Bobwhite's nest and egys 



