Quail

a handsome game bird allied to the partridge and grouse. There are several species. The Virginia, or common quail, emigrates, but is not migratory. It breeds as far north as the severity of the winter permits. After a few mild seasons it becomes comparatively numerous in the copses and grain fields of southern Minnesota; and then again it is almost exterminated by a severe winter. In the breeding season the quails are scattered in pairs, but toward fall they fly in coveys and small families draw together. In cold weather they huddle together tail to tail on the ground, and when surprised spring out with a whirr that startles one. The spring call of the male is the well known bob-white easily imitated by whistling boys. Of all birds on the farm the quail is the most cheery and enheartening. It is a pity that each autumn must witness its slaughter by the eager sportsman. Some game birds are destructive, others fly away when they have bred; but the parent quails and their family are almost a part of the farm in sheltered localities. Fortunately the quail raises a large brood, ten to eighteen. A smaller quail is found in the pineries of Florida. The quail of the Old World with which the children of Israel were fed in the wilderness is a different bird, a trifle smaller and more like a partridge. Unlike the American species, they are unable to sit in trees. They are migratory. In the autumn of the year, when the broods fly south from their northern summer homes immense quantities are taken on the coasts and the islands of the Mediterranean. See Grouse