QUAILS 117 



On Caper's . Island it frequents live-oak trees which are cov- 

 ered with small mussels, upon which it eagerly feeds. If some 

 of the mussels happen to be on an inclined limb the birds walk, 

 instead of flying, to reach them. I have seen as many as four 

 of these birds, one behind the other, on a small limb out in the 

 surf.* 



OYSTER-CATCHERS: Family Haematopodidae. 



OYSTE'R-CATCHER : Haematopus pcdliatus palliatus 



Temminck. 



State records. — The oyster-catcher was formerly common 

 on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts but is yearly growing rarer. 

 Capt. W. M. Sprinkle states that he saw four of these birds on 

 the east point of Petit Bois Island about the year 1898, and 

 he thinks they nested there. 



While waiting for ducks in a blind on Coffee Island bar, 

 near Coden, November 12, 1915, three oyster-catchers circled 

 several times around me; one of them was shot, and though 

 wounded, upon being chased proved to be quite a diver. These 

 birds had been seen there by hunters a few days previously, 

 but we did not see them again, although I remained in that 

 locality two weeks. The fact that they were entirely strange 

 to the local hunters indicates their scarcity in that region. 



AMERICAN QUAILS: Family Odontophoridae. 



BOB-WHITE; QUAIL; PARTRIDGE: Colinus virginianus 

 virginianus (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The well-known bob-white, the "quail" of 

 the North and the "partridge" of the South, is abundant and 

 widely distributed in Alabama. It is nonraigratory and 

 breeds in all localities. Specimens from Castleberry, Fair- 

 hope, Bon Secour, St, Elmo, Orange Beach, Abbeville, Dothan, 

 and Jackson have been examined and all are referable to the 

 typical form. 



Nest building begins late in April and the eggs are laid in 

 May. Two, or even three, broods may be raised in a season, 

 so that the nesting period extends through the summer to the 



•Wayne, A. T., Birds of South Carolina, p. 62, 1910. 



