QUAIL, BOBWHITE, PARTRIDGE 57 



outings came but seldom, he was likely to demand more 

 and to follow up the bevies. 



The broods of quail which have kept together all 

 through the winter usually break up as warm weather 

 approaches, and soon after this comes the mating. This 

 takes place earlier in the south, and in New England it 

 is often the first of June before the birds are mated and 

 the clear whistle of the male is heard. The nest is a 

 depression in the ground, lined to some extent with bits 

 of grass and weed stems and occasionally with a feather 

 or two dropped from the mother's breast. Rarely the 

 parents build over the nest a dome-shaped roof. Cap- 

 tain Bendire quotes Judge John M. Clark of Saybrook, 

 Conn., who saw a male bob white engaged in the work 

 of constructing a domed nest. Judge Clark says : 



"In May, 1887, while on a hill back of my house one 

 morning I heard a quail whistle, but the note, which 

 was continually repeated, had a smothered sound. 

 Tracking the notes to their source I found a male bob- 

 white building a nest in a little patch of dewberry vines. 

 He was busy carrying in the grasses and weaving a roof 

 as well as whistling at his work. The dome was very 

 expertly fashioned and fitted into its place without 

 changing the surroundings, so that I believe I would 

 never have observed it had he kept quiet." 



Captain Bendire also says that Mr. G. E. Beyer of 

 New Orleans, La., found a nest constructed of pine nee- 

 dles, arched over and the entrance probably a foot or 

 more from the nest proper. Such constructions are very 

 unusual. The only concealment commonly found is that 



