BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 325 
GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, ETC. 
The Grouse are treated among the birds of orchard and 
woodland, on pp. 266-274. 
Bob-white. Quail. 
Colinus virginianus. 
Length. — About ten inches. 
Adult Male.— Upper parts mainly reddish-brown, with dark streaks and light 
edgings; forehead and broad line over eye white; throat patch white, bor- 
dered with black; tail short, gray; crown, upper breast, and neck all round 
brownish-red ; breast and belly whitish, narrowly barred and marked with 
crescent-shaped black marks; sides reddish-brown. 
Adult Female.— Similar, but duller; without the black on the head, and the 
white mainly replaced by buff. 
Nest.— On ground, among bushes, grass, or grain. 
Eygs. — White, often stained with brown. 
Season. — Resident. 
No bird is more typical of the southern New England farm 
than the Quail.1 Its clear and mellow call is still a char- 
acteristic sound of spring and early summer. The plowman 
hears it as he drives his team afield, 
and it mingles with the ringing sound 
of the whetstone on the scythe. 
The Quail is an inhabitant of the 
transition zone, and cannot maintain 
itself much farther north than Massa- 
chusetts except along the coast, where 
the winters are less severe than in 
the interior. It gets its sustenance 
mainly from the ground; hence, when Fig. 146.—Bob-white, one- 
the earth is deeply covered with snow Eyer nese 
its food is hard to obtain, and many Quail are starved or 
frozen under the snow during hard winters, as was the case 
during the winter of 1903-04. Such winter killings occur 
many times during a century, and the birds have always 
partially recovered their lost ground; but unless they can 
receive absolute protection for a series of years after such 
seasons their recovery will be rendered increasingly difficult, 
1 The name Quail is a misnomer, for the bird is not a Quail, but more nearly a 
Partridge, as it iscalled in the south. It resembles the Quailof Europe, hence 
the New England name, which will undoubtedly “stick.” 
