Gary Horant age 8, of Louisville, Ky., for his  question:

He is a neat round bird of the fields and meadows, His big$ round breast is topped with a pert little round head. His bright eyes too are round and wide awake, His rounded wings and short tail are set with stiff taffeta feathers. The plume on his neat little head may be large or small, depending upon where he lives. His coloring too may vary, but his markings are always arranged in orderly designs,

In the Southland he is often called a partridge. In the north and west he is more often called a quail. Actually, the various quail cousins of North America are all partridges. Two foreign cousins have been brought into the country and now make their homes in the middle . test and the northwest. One is a partridge from India, the other a blue‑grey partridge from Europe,

The best known quail is the bobwhite, He gets his name from his call which sounds as though he were asking rather wistfully whether your name is Bob White, or Bob‑Bob White. This pretty bird., neatly marked with browns black and white, is the only quail who makes his home in the eastern states. Like all his cousins, he is considered an excellent table bird.

The short, thick beak and the rather large feet of the quail tell us the bird family to which he belongs„ He has three long strong front toes on each foot and a smaller back toe slightly lifted above the ground. The quail is built for scratching and pecking for a living. He is related to the grouse and the turkey' the chicken and the lordly peacock,

In the summer, the quail family scratches in the fields and meadows for insects and weed seeds. Sometimes the farmer complains that they steal his grain.

But when the score is toted up, the fat birds have eaten so many grubs and insects that they have more than earned their keep. Come winter, when the meadows are bare and bleak, the quails take to the woods. Many of them perish from cold and hunger, for the quails do not migrate, even from the northern regions.

In spring or early summer, the parent birds build a grassy nest on the ground and the mother lays perhaps a dozen snow‑white eggs. The babies look like helpless wads of fluff. But the little darlings are able to toddle after Mama an hour or so after they hatch. Both parents look after the brood with tender care and the family stays together all summer.

Come fall, several families will join together in a large covey. For there is safety in numbers. At night, the birds roost in a circle on the ground, beaks pointing outwards. When trouble threatens, the whole covey is warned and all the birds take to the air with a loud whirring of wings.