60 
THE COMMON AMERICAN PARTRIDGE. 
ordinary size, where they remain until danger is over. They walk with 
ease on the branches. If they perceive that they are observed, they raise 
the feathers of their head, emit a low note, and fly off either to some higher 
branch of the same tree, or to another tree at a distance. When these birds 
rise on wing of their own accord, the whole flock takes the Same course ; 
but when put up (in the.sportsman’s phrase), they disperse, after alighting 
call to each other, and soon after unite, each running or flying towards the 
well-known cry of the patriarch of the covey. During deep and continued 
snows, they often remain on the branches of trees for hours at a time. 
The usual cry of this species is a clear whistle, composed of three notes ; 
the first and last nearly equal in length, the latter less loud than the first, but 
more so than the intermediate 'one. When an enemy is perceived they 
immediately utter a lisping note, frequently repeated, and run off with their 
tail spread, their crest erected, and their wings drooping, towards the shelter 
of some thicket or the top of a fallen tree. At other times, when one of the 
flock has accidentally strayed to a distance from its companions, it utters 
two notes louder than any of those mentioned above, the first shorter and 
lower than the second, when an answer is immediately returned by one of 
the pack. This species has moreover a love-call, which is louder and 
clearer, than its other notes, and can be heard at a distance of several hun- 
dred 'yards. It consists of three distinct notes, the two last being lou dest, 
and is peculiar to the male bird. A fancied similarity to the words Bob 
White renders this call familiar to the sportsman and farmer ; but these 
notes are always preceded by another, easily heard at a distance of thirty 
or forty yards. The three together resemble the words Ah Bob White, 
The first note is a kind of aspiration, and the last is very loud and clear 
This whistle is seldom heard after the breeding season, during which an 
imitation of the peculiar note of the female will make the male fly towards 
the sportsman, who may then easily shoot it. 
In the Middle Districts, the love-call of -the male is heard about the 
middle of April, and in Louisiana much earlier. The male is seen per ched 
on a fence-stake, or on the low branch of a tree, standing nearly in the same 
position for hours together, and calling Ah Bob White at every interval of 
a few minutes. Should he hear the note of a female, he sails directly 
towards the spot whence it proceeded. Several males may be heard from 
different parts of a field challenging each other, and should they meet on 
the ground, they fight with great courage and obstinacy, until the con- 
queror drives off his antagonist to another field. 
The female prepares a nest composed of grasses, arranged in a circular 
form, leaving an entrance not unlike that of a common oven. It is placed 
at the foot of a tuft of rank grass or some close stalks of corn, and is partly 
