WINGED LIFE 



185 



the quail is a ground-bird. He gets his food 

 there and spends most of his time there. In 

 the East Bob White always sleeps upon the 

 ground, but the desert quail is usually too 

 clever to trust himself in such an exposed place. 

 He will travel miles to get into a cotton-wood 

 tree at dusk, and if there is water near at hand 

 so much the better. He dearly loves the water 

 and the tree, but if he cannot get them he ac- 

 cepts the situation philosophically and goes to 

 sleep on a high ledge of rock with water per- 

 haps in his thought but not in his crop. 



Thanks to his capacity for travelling, the 

 quail usually manages to get enough of small 

 seeds and insects to keep himself alive. He is 

 a great roamer — in the course of a day travel- 

 ling over many miles of country — and his quest 

 is always food. He likes to be among the great 

 bowlders that lie along the bases of the moun- 

 tains ; and when disturbed he flies and jumps 

 from rock to rock, much to the discouragement 

 of the coyote that happens to be the disturber. 

 When forced to rise he flies perhaps for a hun- 

 dred yards or more and then drops and begins 

 running. In the spring he mates, raises a 

 brood, and teaches the young ones the gentle 

 art of running. In the fall he and his family 



for water. 



Habits of 

 quail. 



