BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 353 



The AMERICAN QJJAIL, or PARTRIDGE. Perdix Virginiana, is 

 quite common in Massachusetts, where it bears the former 

 name ; in the southern and western states, it is always known 

 by the name of Partridge. It remains with us throughout the 

 year, and sometimes suffers so much from the deep snows, that 

 it may be seen in the sheds and near the houses of our largest 

 villages, in search of shelter and food. A party will sometimes 

 resist the cold by collecting in a circle, pressing close, with their 

 heads outward, borrowing warmth from each other ; but in 

 our fiercest winter storms they sometimes perish under the 

 drifted snow. 



The quail is a gentle bird, and fond of associating with its 

 own race, though not in large numbers. It generally resorts to 

 open fields in search of food, such as grain, buck wheat and 

 Indian corn. It sometimes joins the parties of domestic fowls 

 and scratches the ground after their example. Though it is 

 fond of grain, it requires something more for its support : and 

 the demand of the young quails for insects makes the chief 

 difficulty in the way of its domestication. The female pre- 

 pares a nest of various grasses, arranged in an oven-like form, 

 under the protection of a tuft, and partly sunk in the ground. 

 The eggs are from ten to eighteen, of a pure white. The male 

 takes part in sitting, and as soon as the young are hatched, they 

 are able to leave the nest. Wilson believed that the quail 

 might be domesticated. Its eggs have sometimes been hatched 

 by the common hen, and the chickens are sufficiently tame ; 

 but though kept through the season and the succeeding winter, 

 they go away in the spring. Two that were brought up by a 

 hen, as soon as they were turned off, associated with the cows, 

 going with them to the pasture in the morning, returning at 

 night, and standing by them when they were milked, waiting 

 to share their lodgings in the barn. These, however, contented 

 as they appeared, deserted, like all the rest, in the spring. 

 This wildness might after a time be overcome j but there 

 would be more difficulty in supplying all the food they require, 

 and after all it would be doubtful whether success would repay 

 the care and attention which it would demand. 

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