The Adventures of Bob White

This little book is about a family of quail, or bobwhites. The pair move to live near Peter Rabbit, are quite friendly but refuse to tell him where their nest is hidden. Of course Peter is nosy and keeps trying to find it- so do Reddy Fox, a hawk and the skunk. Peter means no harm, but the others would eat the eggs or chicks, so Bob White stoutly refuses to give up his secret. His wife cleverly hides the nest right next to a path the predators frequently travel on, betting they will never look in a place so close to danger. Mr. Bob White makes himself visible far from the nest, so the others are always looking in that area instead. (Funnily enough, this reminded me acutely of the two women who escaped in the last book I read, how they hid in the last place anyone would think to look). Pretty soon the quail eggs hatch, and the mother leads her chicks to places where they can find seed and insects to eat. Peter admires their thoroughness in cleaning the briar patch of creeping things. Later, the bobwhite family moves into fields and the nearby garden, where Farmer Brown’s boy observes them. He finds out quickly enough that his garden is flourishing this year (while the neighbors’ gardens are overrun with pests) because the quail family eats so many insects. He even does math and comes up with some impressive numbers. So happy to have the birds helping, that he tries to protect them against hunters. One hunter laughs at the boy, thinking he’s just being tender-hearted at rescuing an injured bird, but the farmer’s boy indignantly points out that the birds are a main reason his garden is so productive, and he’d be a fool to kill and eat them after that. I wasn’t expecting this slim little book to include details on the life habits of quail and how beneficial they are in the ecosystem, eating numerous small insects (beneficial if you’re growing a garden that is). As I’m just starting to plan out this year’s garden, it brought to mind all the birds I’ve seen visit my own garden, and I remembered many fond quiet moments watching them methodically search the beds for insects (my personal favorite is the grey catbird).