124 OUR WINTER BIRDS 



with the ringing notes from which they are named : 

 "Bob-white! Ah-Bob-white I" they call, or as the 

 farmer puts it, "Buck-wheat-ripe?" What a cheer- 

 ful call it is ! No one, it seems to me, can hear it 

 without a feeling of warmth in his heart for the 

 bird whose voice so clearly echoes the joy of the 

 season. 



Late in May or early June the nest is made on 

 the ground in the bushy border of some field, and 

 as many as ten to eighteen pointed, white eggs are 

 laid. Bob-white is an attentive husband as well as 

 an ardent lover. Unlike most of the members of 

 the order to which he belongs, he does not leave all 

 the duties of the household to his wife, but takes his 

 place on the nest when she is feeding; and when 

 her tiny chicks appear he is apparently as much 

 concerned as their mother in their welfare. 



