Bob Whites, Grouse, etc. 



dare all things for their dear sakes. Should some accident befall 

 the female during incubation, the male faithfully covers the eggs 

 and ministers to every want of his happily precocious family; and 

 in the south, where the female frequently begins to lay again 

 when her first brood is but a few weeks old, it is the father, 

 a pattern of all domestic virtues, that then assumes its full 

 care. When the second brood leaves the shell, one large happy 

 family, known in sportsman's parlance as a bevy or covey, makes 

 as charming a picture as one is likely to meet in a year's tramp. 

 Southern sportsmen, especially, sometimes express surprise at 

 finding birds still in pin feathers and unable to fly in November, 

 when part of the brood, at least, may not be distinguished from 

 adults ; but these most prolific of all game birds not infrequently 

 devote six months to nursery duties. Bob Whites are eminently 

 affectionate, and a covey never willingly disperses until the spring 

 pairing season. 



" It is a glorious day : come, let us kill something ! " says 

 London Punch's famous sportsman ; and when the splendor of 

 autumn glorifies our fields and woods, domed by a sky of clear- 

 est, most intense blue, and the keen, frosty, sparkling air invigo- 

 rates both mind and body, the American sportsman likewise takes 

 down his light, short gun and some shells loaded with No. 8 shot, 

 whistles up his dog, which nearly twists himself inside out with 

 happiness, and at sunrise is off. Now the coveys are feeding in 

 the field of buckwheat or in the stubble of the cornfields (see illus- 

 tration facing p. 256), or along the ditches and clearings fringed 

 with undergrowth, or in the vineyard or orchard — just where it 

 is the dog's business, not the author's, to disclose. The seed of 

 the locust, wild pease, tick, trefoil, sunflower, smartweed, par- 

 tridge berry, wintergreen and nanny berries, acorns, and beech- 

 nuts do not complete the Bob Whites' menu. Late in the fore- 

 noon, the hearty breakfast having at length ended, a bevy of 

 birds will first slake their thirst before huddling together to 

 preen and dust their feathers and enjoy a midday siesta on a 

 sunny slope. They keep near water during droughts ; but after 

 long rains, look for them on the dry uplands and along the sun- 

 niest coverts, not too early on a frosty morning, when they are 

 likely to remain huddled together late to keep warm until the 

 hoar frost melts in the sunshine. These birds have a unique 

 manner of sleeping : forming a circle on the ground, in a sheltered 



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