Quail lives in a ploughed field. Every clod, every furrow, every hollow — he knows them all. Tik, tik, he pecks for seeds.
One day he wandered far out. Flat, bare ground, empty as a plate. No clods. No cover.
A shadow slid across the ground — do you see it? Falcon! Whoosh! She folded her wings and came down like a storm.
Quail lay very still. His heart went pit-a-pat. Then he said, "On my own ground you could never have caught me." Falcon laughed. "Is that so? Go on, then."
Quail went home to his field. He hopped up onto a big clod and called out — tee-twee! "Here I am! Come and get me!"
Whoosh! Falcon dropped like an arrow. Quail slipped behind the clod — quick! Thud! Falcon hit the clod instead.
Falcon limped away. She never came back to that field again. Crickets started up. Quail settled down on the ground he knew.