BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
175 
her demands for food. While she is thus occupied, he seeks the company 
of others of his sex, with whom he remains until the young are nearly 
full-grown, when he joins the family, and dwells with it until spring. 
The period of incubation ranges from nineteen to twenty days. 
When first hatched, the young follow their mother, and soon learn to 
comprehend her clucking call, as well as act responsively thereto. Few 
mothers are more devoted to their children, and it is a rare occasion to 
find one who is more courageous and wily in their defence. Let her 
family be surprised by friend or foe, a single note of alarm is all that is 
necessary to cause the brood to scatter, and with the most clever adroitness 
to hide themselves beneath a bunch of leaves or grass. So successfully is 
the concealment accomplished, that a careful and protracted search is often 
necessary to discover their whereabouts. Often when squatting by the 
roadside with her brood, the parent is taken unawares. This is the 
trial which she of all others seems to dread. To save her little ones she 
perils her own life by venturing upon an assault. Her first impulse is to 
fly at the face of the intruding party, but sober thought comes to her 
rescue, and teaches her the folly of such a course. She yields, and the 
very next moment we find her tumbling over and over upon the ground, 
apparently in the deepest distress, but soon to recover her self-possession 
in time to carry out the final piece upon the programme — a I'tise in which 
lameness is imitated with wonderful ingenuity. While the mother is thus 
agitated, the birdlings are seen to scamper in every direction to places of 
shelter. Having accomplished her allotted part, the happy mother now 
flies away, and by her well-known cluck soon gathers her brood together. 
The cry of the young is a simple peet, which is heard repeatedly during 
feeding, but only occasionally while nestling. Their food consists of the 
seeds of various plants, and berries. While able to search for their own 
food, they derive considerable assistance from the mother. 
Such cunning, wee creatures, when first they leave the egg, can . only 
be compared with the young of our barnyard fowls. Dressed in a simple 
garb, they look but little like their parents. Above they show a uniform 
