Turtle-doves in summer live in cold places, (and in warm places during
the winter); chaffinches affect warm habitations in summer and cold
ones in winter.
8
Birds of a heavy build, such as quails, partridges, and the
like, build no nests; indeed, where they are incapable of flight, it
would be of no use if they could do so. After scraping a hole on a
level piece of ground-and it is only in such a place that they lay
their eggs-they cover it over with thorns and sticks for security
against hawks and eagles, and there lay their eggs and hatch them;
after the hatching is over, they at once lead the young out from the
nest, as they are not able to fly afield for food for them. Quails and
partridges, like barn-door hens, when they go to rest, gather their
brood under their wings. Not to be discovered, as might be the case if
they stayed long in one spot, they do not hatch the eggs where they
laid them. When a man comes by chance upon a young brood, and tries to
catch them, the hen-bird rolls in front of the hunter, pretending to
be lame: the man every moment thinks he is on the point of catching
her, and so she draws him on and on, until every one of her brood
has had time to escape; hereupon she returns to the nest and calls the
young back.
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