QUAIL, BOBWHITE, PARTRIDGE 59 



which did not leave her perch on a fence post until the 

 horse had passed her and I was within four or five feet 

 of her. Then she dropped down into the grass close 

 to the fence. 



The rallying cry uttered by members of a scattered 

 bevy is a call of three notes, but entirely different from 

 the mating cry bobwhite. 



I believe the male bobwhite usually takes part in the 

 work of incubation, and all writers are agreed that if 

 an accident happens to the female, the male incubates 

 the eggs and rears the young. When the eggs hatch, 

 the little ones, then scarcely larger than bumble-bees, at 

 once follow the parents, who look after them with every 

 manifestation of affection. Sometimes it happens that 

 the farmer while driving his mowing machine through 

 the tall grass, may see a male and a female quail rise 

 in front of him and flying but a few feet drop down 

 again. He knows then that somewhere in the grass 

 near his team are the tiny young whose lives are now 

 in jeopardy, and often he will turn his horses about 

 and go the other way, in order to give the parent birds 

 an opportunity to lead their young away from the dan- 

 ger spot. Sometimes the little ones may be seen, a 

 dozen of them, hurrying after their parents across the 

 newly shorn grass, half hidden by its short stems. Oft- 

 en the parents strive to lure man or dog away from the 

 tender young by feigning injury, and on a signal from 

 the mother the young lie close hidden until the danger 

 is passed. 



