Identifier: birdlifeguid00chap (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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h astartling whir-r-r, they spring into the air, their short,strong wings enabling them to reach their greatest speedwithin a short distance of the starting point. One of the best-known members of this distinguished family is our familiar Bob-white, the Quail of the North and Partridge of the South. The fact ColinTj^lnus. is> he is neither a tme Qnail nOT Par tridge, and those who claim that butone of these names is correct may compromise on Bob-white. The Bob-white inhabits the eastern United States, andwherever found is resident throughout the year. Thesexes are much alike in color, the only important differ-ence being in the throat and the line over the eye, whichare white in the male and buff in the female. ~No bird better illustrates the peculiar potency ofbird song, and the hopelessness of attempting to express itscharm. If I should describe Bob-whites call to a personwho had never heard it, as two ringing notes, do yousuppose he would have the faintest conception of what 100
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Plate XXXIII. Page 126. WOOD PEWEE. Length, 6-50 inches. Upper parts dusky olive-green; under partswhitish, washed with dusky; lower mandible yellowish. \ RUFFED GROUSE. 101 they mean to those who love them ? The promise ofSpring, its fulfillment in summer, is clearly told in Bob-whites greeting. Then, in the autumn, when the mem-bers of a scattered bevy are signaling each other, theirsweet where are you f where are you f is equally associatedwith the season. The Bob-white nests about May 20, laying from tento eighteen white eggs in a nest on the ground. The Ruffed Grouse, or Partridge of the North andPheasant of the South, is properly a true Grouse, andRuffed Grouse can no^ De correctly called either Par-Bonasa umieiius. tridge or Pheasant. He is a morePlate xii. northern bird than the Bob-white, be- ing found south of Yirginia only in the Alleghanies.Requiring large tracts of woodland for his haunts, heis less generally distributed and not so common as hisplump relative. I always as

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