654 
GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 
in showery hay-weather into the augury of “ more wet , 
more wet ” continues uninterruptedly, at short intervals, 
for more than half an hour at a time. Du Pratz says they 
are known to the aborigines by the name of ho-ouy (7m- 
wee ), which is also imitative of notes.they sometimes ut- 
ter, as I have heard, early in a morning, from a partly 
domesticated covey. When assembled in a corner, and 
about to take wing, the same low, chicken-like twittering, 
as is employed by the mother towards her more tender 
brood, is repeated; but when dispersed, by necessary oc- 
cupation, or alarm, they are reassembled by a loud and oft 
repeated call of anxious and social inquiry. This note, 
’ho-wce, is however so strongly instinctive, as to be com- 
monly uttered without occasion, by the male even in a 
cage, surrounded by his kindred brood ; so that this ex- 
pression, at stated times, is only one of general sympathy 
and satisfaction like that of a singing bird uttered when 
solitary and confined to a cage. 
In consequence of the shortness and concavity of its 
wings, in common with most other birds of the same 
family, the American Quail usually makes a loud whir- 
ring noise in its flight, which is seldom long continu- 
ed, always laborious, and generally so steady as to afford 
no difficult mark for the expert sportsman. According 
to the observations of Audubon, the flight of our Partridge 
and Grous, when not hurried by alarm, is attended with 
very little more noise than that of other birds. Whatev- 
er may be the fact, when our little Partridges alight on 
the ground, they often run out to very considerable dis- 
tances, when not directly flushed, and endeavour to gain 
the shelter of briars and low bushes, or instinctively squat 
among the fallen leaves of the woods, from which, with 
their brown livery, it is difficult to distinguish them. No 
great destruction is made among them while on the wing, 
