IQ WISCONSIN BIRD-STUDY BULLETIN. 



Sometimes the winter is harder on the quails than the hunters or 

 other enemies are. They roost on the ground and are often snoAvcd 

 in. This does not matter — indeed they like it, for it is warmer in 

 their snow house and they are not so easily seen by their enemies. 

 But once in a while a crust forms above them and they cannot get 

 ont. Unless the crust soon melts or some watchful farmer or school- 

 boy releases them — as he sometimes does — they starve or smother. 

 When the snow goes off, the farmer finds the record of their little 

 tragedy in the bunch of dead birds huddled in a circle, tails to the 

 center in the regular roosting fashion. 



The quail feeds upon seeds and insects. He helps the farmer by 

 eating weed seeds and grasshoppers of which it takes a great many to 

 raise a family of ten to eighteen chicks. And think of a family of 

 twenty-five little Bob Whites! Mr. A. R. Dugmore, in Bird Homes 

 states that twenty-five eggs are sometimes found in a nest. 



Bob White helps Mrs. White in all the family cares from the making 

 of the nest to the rearing of the brood. 



The quails, like the grouse, sandpipers and some other birds are ex- 

 tremely skillful and courageous in the protection of their little ones. 

 If disturbed while hunting about for food, it is the habit of the old 

 bird to give the alarm, when, quick as a wink, the little ones scatter 

 and hide under leaves^ tufts of grass or anything that offers them 

 shelter. Their color so nicely matches the ground colors, that even if 

 exposed, they are hard to discover. If disturbed so suddenly that the 

 chicks have scant time to hide,, the old bird plays a very pretty trick. 

 She flops in front of the intruder as though wounded and unable to 

 fly, meantime giving her warning to the chicks. With matchless skill 

 she attracts all attention to herself. Away she limps and flutters, 

 adroitly keeping just a little beyond reach and acting her part so per- 

 fectly that even the wood-wise hunter is at times made to think that 

 really this one is actually hurt, this is no sham, when, off' she goes as 

 sound as any bird in the wood. Then the hunter, feeling a little fool- 

 ish at having been tricked by a bird that he knew all the time to be 

 full of such deceits, turns back thinking that he may discover some 

 of the little ones for whose safety all this pretty acting has been done. 

 But no, he is fooled again: he can not be sure just where he was when 

 he began his efforts to rescue the poor wounded bird. There is not a 

 sign of a -chick anywhere to be seen. He turns over leaves, pieces of 

 bark, a dead branch here, a tuft of grass there, but no — he has lost his 

 place, the chicks are safe and the mother's point is gained. A¥hen the 

 danger is past, she clucks them together again and they go on with 

 their search for seeds and insects. 



