The Birds and Poets 139 



many of them associate him with the harvest, as 

 Hamlin Garland in his poem, "Wheat": 



"When the quail whistles loud in the wheat fields, 

 That are yellow with ripening grain." 



He is called the "siren of the fields" by Marion 

 Franklin Ham: 



"Shrill and clear from coppice near, 

 A song within the woodland ringing, 

 A treble note from a silver throat 

 The siren of the fields is singing — 



Bob-bob-white I 

 And from the height the answer sweet 

 Floats faintly o'er the rippling wheat — 



Bob-white !" 



I once came upon a male bobwhite in a field 

 of wheat stubble, with a family of about a dozen 

 little ones, and before I could look twice the young 

 birds had squatted and scurried to cover, so that 

 not a single one of them was to be seen. 



Trowbridge truly says: 



"Quickly before me runs the quail. 

 Her chickens skulk behind the rail." 



This wonderful faculty for sudden skulking out 

 of sight is also possessed by the grouse. The parent 

 bird, after giving the danger signal to the young, 

 usually flutters along the ground, with one or both 

 wings dragging, feigning injury, until one is drawn 



