BOB WHITE. 
OMEWHAT related to the grouse is the Quail, as he is 
called in the Northern States, or ‘Bob White,” his 
universally recognized appellation. His scientific name is 
OrtyxVirginianus. Differing from the Old World partridges, 
he has been assigned a place in the sub-family Odontopho- 
rine, of which five genera are said to exist, most of them 
being restricted to the extreme south-west of our country. 
His habits and history are full of interest to everbody. 
Quails are restless, uneasy birds, attached to one place 
while rearing their family, but immediately upon the brood 
becoming able to travel, commencing their wanderings. There 
is no accounting for these movements, which sometimes 
deprive a whole district of their presence for a time, to popu- 
late a neighboring region previously without them. When 
such journeys are undertaken, a large number of birds par- 
ticipate, travelling on foot, and passing steadily through 
districts where food is plentiful, and seemingly without any 
definite destination in mind, so loath are they to use their 
wings, that in attempting to cross wide rivers and inlets 
immense numbers are said to perish. <A limited and partial 
migration, it is highly probable, takes place annually from 
the more northern to warmer latitudes, influenced in its 
extent by the comparative severity of the seasons, being 
more distinctly migrating west than east of the Delaware 
River. 
About the middle of March the winter flocks break up, 
and the mating begins. Although not indulging in the 
noisy and seemingly meaningless antics of the grouse to 
