4 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



mother bird sitting on the nest. After she flew off the nest, he examined it 

 carefully, the bunch of grass covering it being filled with ice and frozen solid, 

 leaving just space enough under it for the bird and her nest and a place of exit. 

 A few days after finding it he and other parties went to examine it again. This 

 time they found the bird still sitting on the nest but frozen to death. A portion 

 of the eggs had been hatched, but the young were also frozen. Was this not a 

 a very singular occurrence? I should have been somewhat skeptical in regard 

 to it if I had not met with very nearly a similar case while out quail shooting 

 four years ago this winter, in company with a venerable sportsman, Mr. Pratt, 

 of this place. Our dogs made a point. We flushed a single bird after consid- 

 erable kicking around in the grass and snow, and found she had been sitting on 

 her nest containing three apparently fresh eggs; but alas, she never returned to 

 finish her maternal duties. It was too late when we found the cause of her 

 reluctant flight." 



The Bob White is unquestionably the most prolific of all our game birds, 

 the number of eggs laid varying from twelve to eighteen to a clutch. Fifteen 

 may be considered a fair average. As many as thirty-seven eggs have been 

 found in one nest, unquestionably the product of two, or even three, hens. In 

 such large sets the eggs are always placed in layers or tiers, the small or pointed 

 ends usually toward the center. An egg is laid daily till the set is com- 

 pleted. 



The late Dr. T. M. Brewer states that he "never found less than twenty- 

 four eggs in a nest, and from that to thirty-two." 1 If the eggs are all laid by 

 a single bird, which I think is doubtful, such large sets as Dr. Brewer 

 mentions may possibly be accounted for in the following manner: In 

 Massachusetts and in other portions of its northern range the Bob Whites 

 probably rear but one brood, and lay a larger number of eggs to a set than 

 they do in the Middle and Southern States, where the fact seems to be pretty 

 well established that two and even three broods are sometimes raised during 

 a favorable season; parents with young of three different sizes having been 

 met with now and then, which would tend to substantiate this assertion. Incu- 

 bation lasts about twenty-four days, in which duty the male is said to assist, 

 at times at least. 



Mr. Lynds Jones, who has had excellent opportunities to study the habits 

 of the Bob White, writes me: "The female is seldom seen during the nesting 

 season, while the male attracts our attention with his loud and fearless call, 

 usually uttered from some fencepost or other elevated position. If driven 

 from this, he darts into the grass or shrubbery and there repeats his call. I 

 never succeeded in flushing the female at such times ; she is shy and coy, while 

 the male is bold and fearless. While I have never flushed the male from the 

 nest, I have frequently found him near it. If the nest is disturbed while the 

 set of eggs is still incomplete, the birds usually abandon it; but should incuba- 

 tion be somewhat advanced they will return and hatch their brood. The male 



1 History North American .Birds, Vol. m, p. 472. 



