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. 



Eggs. — 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 Pig. 146.— nob-white, one- 



, , , , . half natural size. 



the earth is deeply covered with snow 



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 is called in the south. It resembles the Quail of Europe, hence 

 the New England name, which will undoubtedly " stick." 



