MORE NEIGHBORHOOD TALKA reader has written to tell me I am all wrong in my interpretation of the quail's note. It does not say, "Cut that out." It says "Took-uh-ooo." And it is not a fault-finder or protestor. The quail is a light-hearted, merry little bird and the quail and grouse are two distinct varieties of game birds (I thought they were at least cousins) and that only the male quails have top-knots. This is quite likely—nature was ever prone to favor the male—in the humbler creations.
So I stand corrected, in everything but the words of the quail, and I still say they are words of protesting and fault-finding, and I can hear them say "Cut-that-out" quite plainly. So that's my story, and I am going to stick to it.
Another reader corrects me on the matter of letting out the bees in t
