106 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
leaves in the top of an oak tree, he raised his gun quickly and fired into 
the leaves when to his astonishment down came fourteen partridges 
dead and wounded. Partridges breed readily in confinement, and oc¬ 
casionally, though rarely, become quite tame. 
Although Quail are more or less common in nearly all counties of the 
commonwealth I have found them more abundant, in the hunting season, 
at different points along the Cumberland Valley railroad, the Northern 
Central railroad, and the Harrisburg and Gettysburg railroad (in Frank¬ 
lin, Cumberland, Adams and York counties) than elsewhere in the state. 
Good Quail shooting is also to be had, it is said, in certain sections of 
Mercer, Crawford, Lawrence, and some few other of the western and 
southwestern counties. In many sections of Chester, Delaware and 
Lancaster counties these birds are much less numerous than they were 
five or six years ago. 
The food of this species * consists principally of cereals, various small 
seeds, berries, and in the breeding season insects, chiefly beetles, are 
taken in limited numbers. B. M. Everhart, the well-known naturalist 
and botanist, informs me that four or five years ago he examined the 
stomach-contents of twenty odd Partridges which his brother had shot 
when on a gunning excursion in the Delaware, and found that all the 
birds had fed exclusively on the seeds of skunk-cabbage (Symplocarpus 
fceditus). 
The food of sixteen quails, with date of collection and locality in 
which they were captured, examined by myself, are given in the follow - 
ing table: 
No. 
Date. 
Locality, 
Food-Materials. 
1 
July 21. 1879. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Small seeds. 
2 
July 21. 1879. 
Chester county. Pa. 
Wheat and berries. 
3 
Aug.—, 1880. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Small seeds and remains of beetles. 
4 
Aug. 3. 1880,. 
Chester county. Pa. 
Beetles. 
5 
Oct. 20, 1880. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Corn and small seeds. 
6 
Oct. 20, 1880,. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Corn and wheat. 
7 
Oct. 20. 1880,. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Corn and seeds. 
8 
Oct. 20, 1880. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Wheat. 
9 
Nov. 20, 1880. 
York county. Pa. 
Rag-weed seeds and corn. 
10 
Nov. 20, 1880. 
York county, Pa. 
Corn. 
11 
Nov. 30, 1880,. 
Newark, Del.,. 
Small seeds. 
12 
Dec.—, 1882. 
Newark, Del.,. 
Corn. 
13 
Dec.—, 1882. 
Newark. Del... 
Green vegetable material. 
14 
Dec.—, 1882. 
Newark, Del.,. 
Green vegetable material and small seeds. 
15 
May 20, 1884. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Small seeds. 
16 
May 20, 1884. 
Chester county, Pa... 
Small seeds and insects. 
* The Florida Bob-white (G\ V. floridanus, Coues) subsists to a great extent on different kinds of in¬ 
sects. In the months of February. March, April and the first week in May, 1885, when in Florida. I ex¬ 
amined over one hundred of these quail and found that the greater part of their food consisted of different 
forms of insect-life, particularly beetles, small flies and “ worms, ” with frequently small seeds and 
other kinds of green vegetable substances. In the gizzards of nine of these birds, taken late in April, 
were found (one or two in each bird) with other food, small batrachians, the proper name of which is 
unknown to me, but which the natives called • • sand frogs *' or ‘ * rain toads.” 
