240 Birds Every Child Should Know 
sentinel. At the sign of danger the bunch of 
birds will rise with loud whirring of the wings, 
as suddenly as a bomb might burst. 
From November onward, every gun in the 
country will be trained against them. There 
is sufficient reason for poor people, who rarely 
have any really good food, or enough to eat, 
shooting game birds in season ; but who has any 
patience with the pampered epicures for whose 
order “quail-on-toast” are cooked by the hun- 
dred thousand at city clubs, restaurants, and 
private tables, already over-supplied? No chef 
could ever tempt me to eat this friendly little 
song bird that stays about the farm with his 
family through the coldest winter to pick up 
the buckwheat, cheap raisins, and sweepings 
from the hay loft that keep him as neighbourly 
as a robin. Every farmer who does not post his 
place, and who allows this useful ally in his 
eternal war against weeds and insect pests to be 
shot, impoverishes himself more than he is 
aware. 
RUFFED GROUSE 
Called also: Partridge 
Bob-white and ruffed grouse are the fife and 
drum corps of the woods. That some birds 
are wonderful musicians everybody knows. 
