750 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



oi' a little depression through n pasture, where many eattle continually 

 passed, with no protection, and only their faith in the cattle keeping 

 the path a yard away, could have impelled the birds to build there. 

 The usual number of eggs is from 12 to 25. The average being 15 to 

 18. Sometimes one hears of nests having as many as thirty or forty. 

 Undoubtedly such a number is the result of two or more laying in the 

 same nest. This they occasionally do, and also sometimes they and 

 chickens lay in the same nest. There have, undoubtedly, been great 

 changes in the habits of these birds. The female does the sitting 

 and cares for the family. Occasionally, when she has been killed, the 

 male has been known to assume the task of sitting and fulfilling the 

 duties of the mate. 



Mr. John Wright, of Bartholomew County, told me of a nest in a 

 fence-row, near which he often passed. He noted the eggs day after 

 day, as they increased in number, and frequently saw the female. One 

 day he was surprised to see the male sitting upon the nest. Examina- 

 tion showed some feathers of the female near by, marking the site of a 

 tragedy in which she had been the victim. The male had taken up her 

 duties. He watched him, and he stuck to his job. The young were 

 hatched and faithfully they were cared for by the parent. He led 

 them to the neighborhood of the corn field and near there he and they 

 spent the winter. My father also tells of a similar instance. I have 

 found the nest with fresh eggs as late as July 9 (1887). Mr. Robert 

 Ridgway has found a nest containing fresh eggs, October 16, and 

 there is one instance, given from Missouri, by Major Bendire, of a 

 Bob white sitting on her eggs in January. 



The Bobwhite is the bird of civilization. It and the farmer each 

 fares best when they recognize they have united interests and one is 

 dependent upon the other. While the birds eat wheat, oats, rye, barley, 

 corn, buckwheat and other crop seeds, they get the most of it from 

 gleaning the fields, and at the same time eat seeds of smart-weed, 

 butter-weed, rag-weed, partridge-berries, nanny-berries, wild grapes 

 and various other wild fruits and weed seeds. They also eat blades of 

 grass and other green foods, and in winter, acorns and beechnuts. 

 Through the breeding season, and, in fact, the entire summer, they eat 

 many insects beetles, grubs, larvae enemies of trees, crops, and 

 meadows. Dr. Howard E. Jones examined the crop of one accidentally 

 killed in a potato patch in Ohio and found it contained seventy-five 

 potato-bugs. 



Mr. E. J. Chansler, of Bicknell, Knox County, informs me he has 

 seen an old bird, with her brood, devouring chinch bugs. The mother 

 would jump up and strike the cornstalks, knocking down many bugs, 



