GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



221 



are hatched in one year. The greatest number of poults in one brood are, as far as I could learn, 

 between fifteen and twenty-six, the smallest from six to eight. On the first of October I found some 

 half-grown young, the greater number were already nearly or quite as large as their parents, and so 

 fledged that they might well attract the attention of a sportsman. As long as the young brood 

 require their parents' care they keep together in a small collected flock, and if this is threatened each 

 little chick runs away so quickly and squats in some convenient place that it is very difficult to induce 

 them to rise. If this can be done, the covey fly all close together, but usually quickly alight on low 

 branches of trees or bushes, but often also on the ground, and here they generally sit, sometimes 



THE COMMON QUAIL (Coluyilix communis). ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE, 



Stiffly in a heap, and while they think they are well concealed, allow themselves to be approached 

 within a few paces. Later in the year, when they have reached their full growth, they more seldom 

 take to the trees, become more cautious, and are approached with greater difficulty. The first 

 intimation that a covey is near, is given in a single note, repeated two or three times, then follows 

 a rustling of dry leaves, and the whole troop hasten, as quickly as they may, yet one step farther 

 and then all rise with a whirring noise, and disperse themselves in diflferent directions." 



With the exception of close fir-woods, without undergrowth, these birds people every locality, but 

 seem to prefer thick bushes, and especially osier holts, on the borders of streams. Dr. Gambel tells 

 us that he saw them in flocks of fifteen or twenty in company with another species in a barren tract, 

 where several podded kinds of Prosopis, with low-spreading branches, afforded them excellent covert, 

 and the seeds of bushy Maluas, Chmwpodia, and Artemisia probably served them for food. In this 



