VI 

 QUAIL AND GROUSE 



bob-white; quail 



July 21, 1851. The quail, invisible, whistles, and who 

 attends ? 



Jan. 17, 1856. Henry Shattuck tells me that the 

 quails come almost every day and get some saba beans 

 within two or three rods of his house, — some which he 

 neglected to gather. Probably the deep snow drives 

 them to it. 



Feb. 7, 1857. Hayden the elder tells me that the 

 quails have come to his yard every day for almost a 

 month and are just as tame as chickens. They come 

 about his wood-shed, he supposes to pick up the worms 

 that have dropped out of the wood, and when it storms 

 hard gather together in the corner of the shed. He 

 walks within, say, three or four feet of them without 

 disturbing them. They come out of the woods by the 

 graveyard, and sometimes they go down toward the 

 river. They will be about his yard the greater part of 

 the day ; were there yesterday, though it was so warm, 

 but now probably they can get food enough elsewhere. 

 They go just the same to Poland's, across the road. 

 About ten years ago there was a bevy of fifteen that 

 used to come from the same woods, and one day, they 

 being in the barn and scared by the cat, four ran into 

 the hay and died there. The former do not go to the 



