Birds of Massachusetts. 197 
and after all it would be doubtful whether success 
would repay the care and attention which it would 
demand. 
. The note of the quail is well known, being gen- 
erally interpreted into the prediction, more wet, more 
wet; the sounds are continued for a long time. 
This note of the male is most frequent and loud in 
the month of September. Sometimes there is an 
introductory whistle preceding the clear and em- 
phatie more wet, or bob white. 'This call may be 
easily imitated so as to deceive the bird. When a 
covey are about to take wing, they make a sound 
resembling that of young chickens; when they sep- 
arate, the parent assembles them by a plaintive and 
expressive call. 
The Rurrep Grous, Tetrao umbellus, is called 
pheasant in the middle and western states, and 
partridge in New England; a confusion of names 
somewhat perplexing. These elegant birds gener- 
ally keep themselves within the shelter of the woods, 
and prefer those which grow on the sides of moun- 
tains. There they can find their food at all seasons ; 
it consists, in spring and autumn, of the buds of 
various trees, the catkins of the alder and hazle, 
and all the berries that the fields and forest afford. 
In winter, they live on the buds of apple-trees, lau- 
rels and azaleas, together with the berries of the 
wintergreen, and the favorite partridge berry, which 
they are able to rescue from the snow. 
"The ruffed grous begins its drumming in April ; 
the sound is heard most frequently at the beginning 
