42 Quails

Whirr! A flash of brown feathers zoomed over the paddock and landed in the grass.

"Quails!" said Suzy. "Lots of them."

"How many?" asked Little Thunder. "They moved too fast to count."

"Let's guess first," said Spike. "I think about forty."

The quails began to peck in neat little rows. Suzy looked closely. "There are six quails in each row."

"Then we can skip count the rows," said Spike. "Six, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, thirty, thirty-six, forty-two!"

"Forty-two quails!" said Little Thunder. "Spike's guess was close!"

Just then the quails all turned at once, like one big brown cloud. They moved together, every single time.

"How do they do that?" asked Little Thunder.

"They watch the quails next to them," said Suzy. "When one turns, they all turn."

Little Thunder tried it with Spike and Suzy. He turned left. They turned left. He turned right. They turned right.

"We are a quail cloud!" he laughed, and the real quails whirred away.