Cute! Yes, I think so. You would have to be sharp, too, if you were a
game bird. Through the summer we don't have much trouble, but just as
soon as cold weather sets in, and our broods have grown to an eatable
size, "pop" go the guns, and "whirr" go our wings as we fly through the
air. It is only at such times we take wing, sometimes seeking refuge in
a tree from our enemies. I'm sorry we are such nice birds--to eat--for
really we like to stay around farmhouses, and barn-yards, eating with
the chickens and other fowl. We are easily tamed, and the farmers often
thank us for the injurious insects we eat, and the seeds of weeds.
How do we know they thank us? Why, we must know that, when they scatter
seed for us on the snow. Kind deeds speak louder than words, for in the
winter we suffer a great deal. Sometimes when it is very cold we burrow
down under the snow, in snow-houses, as it were, to keep warm. That is
risky, though; for when it rains and then freezes over, we are in a
trap. A great many Quail die in this way during a hard winter.
Is Quail another name for Bob White? Yes, but people like Bob White
better. Did you ever hear me whistle? If not, come out in the country in
the spring, and hear me call to my mate. I sit on a fence rail, and, to
let her know where I am, I whistle, _Bob White! Bob White!_ and if she
pretends to be bashful, and doesn't answer me at once, I whistle again,
_Bob, Bob White!_ POOR _Bob White!_ She takes pity on me then, and comes
at my call.
[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff.
BOB WHITE.
Copyrighted by
Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.]
BOB WHITE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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