GAME 



BIRDS 



O F 



AMERICA 



freezes over them, they 

 make their way beneath 

 it, feeding on twigs 

 and ground vegetation 

 until they can break 

 out. When pursued 

 they dive from on wing 

 into the snow, and push 

 their way below the 

 surface, to burst out 

 again farther on. It 

 is exceedingly difficult 

 to starve the grouse. 

 They will live on frozen 

 twigs, buds, laurel 

 leaves, sumac berries, 

 or birch and alder cat- 

 kins. So my notebooks 

 cover the Jiistory of 

 the grouse through all 

 the seasons of the livelong 



BOB WHITE IN WINTER 



These little birds have a hard time 



finding food when the snow is on 



the ground. 



year. 



A YOUNG BOB WHITE 



THE BOB WHITE 



"Bob white! You bob white! " cries a brave 

 little fowl from the top rail of the old fence. 

 His call is the embodiment of cheerfulness. 

 There is something heartening in the sound. 

 This is due in part to its rich and vigorous 

 quality, and in part to its rising termination — 

 the question in the final note — as if it said 

 "All right there. Fellows?" How different 

 from the note of the whippoorwill, with its 

 falling inflection and its general expression of 

 sad finality. The whippoorwill may be a cheerful bird. One is inclined 

 to doubt it; but we know Bob White is happy. Just hear him! He looks 

 it too. Thus this cheerful little optimist makes his way to the hearts 

 of men. Even the sportsmen who slay him love him, and are often his 

 best friends, — after the shooting season, — and the epicure loves him — 

 on toast. Down South they call him partridge. In the North he is 

 known as the quail; but the ornithologists, who try to settle such matters 

 for all, have taken his word for it and have named him Bob White. 



This cheery little manikin is about the most important North Ameri- 

 can bird that flies, not excepting even the American eagle. He is the 



