90 THE BIRDS 
unless something is done to help them they will, like the 
Wild Turkey, in a few years become truly a rare bird 
with us. As a game bird I consider them superior to the 
“Bobwhite,” both on account of their size and the flavor 
of the meat, as well as affording most excellent sport to 
the gunner. On the other hand, they are very beneficial 
birds, their food consisting of practically nothing of 
benefit to the agriculturist: bush and tree buds, wild 
berries, small nuts, seeds and insects being largely eaten. 
They do not migrate, remaining with us through the 
winter, and early in March are paired off, after the male 
goes through his well-known tactics of drumming, the 
sound produced by the wings beating the air, and not on 
the log or elevation on which he stands, as thought by 
many. Like the Wild Turkey and Bobwhite, they like 
to dust themselves, and one often has a chance to see this 
wary bird with its young in the dry, dusty road, dusting 
themselves in the manner ‘of the farmyard fowls. By 
the 10th of May fresh eggs can be found, the nest being 
a hollow in the ground and lined with dry leaves, pine 
needles and grasses, generally placed under some over- 
hanging shelter of bush, tree trunk, vines or rock. Seven 
to fifteen eggs is a full set, a creamy-buff ground color, 
finely specked with reddish-brown, as often, though, 
unmarked as marked. Size, 1.58x1.18. The young follow 
the parent almost as soon as hatched; their food consisting 
of beetles, bugs, caterpillars, all the varieties of wild 
berries and grain that happen to be handy, though they 
do no damage to growing grain crops. My father found 
coveys of partly grown young at Harrisonburg, July 10th. 
Professor Smyth reports them as breeding at Blacksburg, 
though less abundant than formerly, and I found them in 
the mountains at 4,500 feet altitude. 
