QUAILS. 213 
assembles or when it meets its kindred out for a prome- 
nade, 
The quail eats grain, insects, and sometimes grapes, 
but it 1s content with a very small quantity of the latter 
food, hence the statements made against the valley quail 
in California, that it destroys vineyards, are partially 
founded on a misapprehension. To poison it by the 
thousands on this ground would therefore seem to be 
wrong, for it often more than atones for any harm it 
may do by the quantity of chinch bugs and other insects 
it destroys, and which, but for it, would lay waste 
the grain fields. The favorite feeding resorts of the 
Bob Whites in fine weather are the stubble-fields 
which are close to water. They frequent these each 
morning and evening, but seek cover in the bushes, 
hedges, and fences during the day. They lie in con- 
cealment nearly all day in rainy weather, and if 
tracked by dogs they try to escape by running, so that a 
man may have to follow them for several hundred yards 
before he can get near enough to flush them. They hie 
to the timber for shelter in snowy weather, but return to 
the fields in a day or two after the storm has ceased. If 
they are flushed then they will fly for the first convenient 
cover, and try to hide, or to escape by running through 
the bushes as fast as they can. They often double like a 
hare on such occasions, and give a dog—unless he is ex- 
ceedingly staunch and keen-nosed—a great deal of 
trouble to trail them. 
If one of the bevy calls soon after seeking shelter, a 
person may expect all to flush again in a short time, as it 
is a proof that they do not like their refuge. Should the 
sportsman desire to know their place of retreat, in case 
they keep silent, he can learn it by uttering their call, as 
he is almost sure to receive an answer, especially in the 
early part of the season. The call must be correct, how- 
ever, or it will only make them scamper off. When the 
