THE OOLOGIST. 



53 



prairie grass, which looked like the rest 

 of the grass around was a Quail's nest, 

 until I stepped on it and heard the eggs 

 pop. That was the first and only nest 

 I ever stepped on, to my knowledge. 



Their nests with fresh eggs may be 

 found from April to July, and one of 

 their favorite places to b^iild is in the 

 ridge of an old road whei'e the grass has 

 been left standing. Both birds assist in 

 building their nest. The material of 

 which it is composed is gathered close 

 at hand, and I have seen the fern ale in 

 the nest, seemingly fixing things to suit 

 herself, while the male was on the out- 

 side carrying the material within reach 

 of his mate. 



When the birds are disturbed during 

 the process of building, they will aban- 

 don the nest. 



After the female begins to deposit the 

 eggs, she usually lays one egg every 

 day; sometimes a day will be missed; it 

 may be she dropped the egg before get- 

 ting on the nest; as they have a habit, it 

 seems, of dropping or scattering eggs 

 around; it may be on account of having 

 no nest or by accident. I have known 

 of one instance where three days some- 

 times intervened from one deposit to 

 another and then two eggs were depos- 

 ited in one day. 



Sometimes before all the eggs are de- 

 posited, the enti'ance to the nest may be- 

 come somewhat closed or damaged, so 

 that it does not leave a clear entrance; 

 in such cases the birds will be very apt 

 to leave the nest and make another one. 



The eggs vax'y in number. I have 

 found a great many nests, ten eggs were 

 the least, and twenty-seven the most 

 found in one nest, fifteen to twenty are 

 the usual number. The eggs being of 

 such a pui'e white color, are A^ery easily 

 stained, and it is very seldom, a full set 

 can be found without a number of stain- 

 ed ones. 



I have found two runt Quail's eggs; 

 they were both in the same nest, and 

 one with a projection of about an inch 



on small end; projection was soft-shell- 

 ed while the i-est of shell was hard; egg 

 same size as rest of set. I have always 

 seen the male, on nest during incuba- 

 tion, it may be female was relieved so 

 as to get food about the same time of 

 day, I rather think the female assists in 

 incubating the eggs, for as soon as young 

 are hatched both assist in taking care of 

 the young brood. I remember one nest 

 where the male did all the incubating 

 for I was trying to catch him on the 

 nest. He was a close sitter and al- 

 thoug I had the grass all trampled down 

 around nest and had a box ready to tip 

 over him and repeatedly nearly had 

 him still he would go back and actually 

 hatched the eggs. I never saw the fe- 

 male during the time of incubating. 

 This happened when I was a small boy. 



The young have a peculiar peep sim- 

 ilar to a young turkey and usually utter 

 two or three peeps in succession. 

 When disturbed while quite young they 

 will give sevei-al loud peeps when the 

 old ones will fly about the intruder and 

 run around with their feathers ruffled 

 up and their wings down making a 

 cackling noise. 



The flock will stay together if not dis- 

 turbed during the whole winter. When 

 roosting they sit close together in a 

 bunch with their heads outward and 

 when disturbed they start from the 

 bunch in a flutter in all directions. In 

 the spring they disband and mate; at 

 this time may be heard the cheerful 

 notes of Mr. Bob-white while perched 

 upon a fence post. 



Amos Pyfer, 

 Odell, JSTeb. 



Prairie Warbler in Wayne Co., Mich. 



My first introduction to this Warbler 

 took place May 27, 1894. I flushed the 

 bird from the nest which was located in 

 a thicket. After leaving the nest the 

 bird I'emained concealed for some time. 



