296 VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE. 
close to barns in search of any ‘waifs or strays’ in the shape 
of food, mix with the poultry, and seem almost half-domesti- 
cated. They suffer severely in times of deep snow and length- 
ened winters. About the beginning of September they collect 
in flocks of from four or five to thirty. They usually roost 
at night on some high ground in the middle of a field, 
and they are said to lie in a circle with their heads outwards; 
in trees also sometimes. ae 
They fly with a whirring sound, straight, steadily, and quick. 
Their food is made up of Indian corn, buckwheat, and 
other grain, seeds, berries, and insects. 
The call, says Wilson, consists of two notes loud and clear, 
with sometimes an introductory one, and resembles the words 
‘Bob White; another account describes it as two short low 
whistles, followed by one long, loud, and shrill. 
Nidification begins early in May. 
The nest, placed under or in some thick tuft of grass that 
shelters and conceals it, is described as well covered with a 
hood, an opening being left on one side for entrance, and is 
composed of leaves and fine dry grass, both birds assisting 
in its fabrication. ; 
The eggs, from ten or twelve to fifteen or even twenty- 
four in number, this latter quantity the joint produce in 
all probability of two birds laying in the same nest, are 
pure white, without any spots, and broad at one end, and 
pointed at the other. 
The hen bird performs the task of incubation for four weeks, 
and the whole family keep together till the following spring. 
The young leave the nest at once on being hatched, and 
are conducted forth by the female in search of food, and 
from time to time are sheltered under her wings, collected 
together by a twittering cry. Should danger appear to 
threaten, she displays extreme anxiety, boldly attacking an 
intruder, or using every artifice and stratagem to draw him 
away, feigning lameness, ‘throwing herself in the path, flut- 
tering along, and beating the ground with her wings, as if 
sorely wounded, uttering at the same time certain peculiar 
notes of alarm, well understood by the young, which dive 
separately among the grass, and secrete themselves till the 
danger is over; and the parent, having decoyed the pursuer 
to a safe distance, returns, by a circuitous route, to collect 
and lead them off. She shews the greatest assiduity and 
the most sedulous and unremitting attention in their further 
