The Wilson Bulletin-March, 1937 
 
enough to be significant and are adequately warranted by photographs. 
The writer is indebted to Dr. H. H. Knight of Iowa State College for 
the accompanying photographs. 
The covey of Bob-wbites under observation was located on the 
Little Wall Area by Mr. Robert I. Simpson and the writer during a 
preliminary survey to prospective emergency feeding operations. This 
inspection was carried out on the twenty-eighth day of January. The 
birds were using a plum (Prunus) and willow (Salix) thicket as a day 
roost. The thicket was growing upon a slight embankment immedi- 
ately to the northwest of a marsh which in that region is largely grown 
up to river bulrushes (Scirpus fluviatilis). The embankment and 
thicket provided excellent mechanical protection from the prevailing 
northwest winds, and the skyward branching of the thicket insured 
the birds against the attacks of winged predators. At that time there 
were approximately twenty-one birds in the covey. It may be of in- 
terest to note that both Bob-whites and Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus 
torquatus), in apparent tolerance of each other, were using this thicket

almost to the exclusion of one or two available willow thickets which 
were, if possible, more exposed to the wind. The birds were not fed 
during this visit, but later, on February 2, shelled corn was placed in 
the thicket by emergency feeders. 
On February 8 the most severe blizzard of the season occurred. 
The writer, interested in its effect upon wildlife, drove to the Little 
Wall Area to observe the birds already mentioned. Under protected 
 
FIG. 2. The thicket. The snow-prison was at the writer's feet, and 
the highest level of the drift is being indicated upon the willow clump.