A Sight Almost Unseen!

I had climbed half-way up the slight incline behind our storage cabin in the woods when I noticed something unusual on the ground in front of me. It appeared to be two eyes staring at me from the dried sticks and leaves that covered the open plot in the woods.

Not knowing what wild beast might be hiding in the brush, ready to pounce upon me, I cautiously approached the spot to investigate further. Upon closer examination I discovered that I was indeed seeing two eyes, the outline of a head, and a bird's bill—a quail was nesting in that spot on the ground.

She had such perfect protective coloration that her feathers and even her bill blended in with her environment. I had to look very carefully to see the outline of a bird sitting there in the brush.

Over the next number of days I visited the spot several times a day in order to see the young quail after they had hatched. The neighbors came to see the "invisible" bird. A friend from as far away as East Tennessee was thrilled and blest to have had the opportunity to view that scene.

On one of my visits, those eyes were no longer there. Instead, all I could see were the remains of the egg shells. The young quail had apparently hit the ground a-running. Neither they nor their mother were ever seen again—unless, of course, they were the covey I saw "dancing" in the soybean patch when the snow was on the ground.