EASTEUN BOBWHITE y 



stalk fields left after the picking of the corn. When the gregarious spirit 

 is upon them they are exceedingly wary and are up and away almost as they 

 see the hunter enter the field. The startling noise with which they take flight 

 and their extremely rapid coursing across the field make them a very difficult 

 target, and, although many attempts are made by poachers, few birds fall as 

 victims. By the latter part of February, however, there comes a change when 

 they begin breaking up and pairing off, and at this time they appear to lose 

 some of their wariness. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Introduced more or less unsuccessfully in the Eastern States, from 

 Maine and New York southward to Florida and Mississippi, also in 

 California. In the Central States, from Minnesota and Michigan to 

 Kansas and Arkansas, most attempts at introduction have failed, 

 except in extreme northwestern Kansas, in parts of Iowa (Osceola 

 and Lyon Counties), and in southeastern Wisconsin (Waukesha 

 County). Introduced birds have done well in southern British 

 Columbia (Fraser Valley) and in eastern Washington and Oregon 

 (east of the Cascade Mountains). The most remarkable success has 

 been attained in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, where the 

 birds have flourished and spread over a wide territory. 



Egg dates. — Washington : 4 records, May 25 to June 10. 



COLINUS VIRGINIANUS VIRGINIANUS (Linnaeus) 

 EASTERN BOBWHITE 



HABITS 



In the springtime and early in summer bobwhite deserves his name, 

 which he loudly proclaims in no uncertain terms and in a decidedly 

 cheering tone from some favorite perch on a fence post or the low 

 branch of some small tree. But at other seasons I prefer to call him 

 a quail, the name most familiar to northern sportsmen, or a partridge, 

 as he is even more appropriately called in the South. But European 

 sportsmen would say that neither of these names is strictly accurate, 

 so we may as well call him bobwhite, which is at least distinctive. 

 By whatever name we call him, he is one of our most popular and 

 best beloved birds. From a wide distribution in the East, he has 

 followed the plow westward with the clearing of the forests and the 

 cultivation of the fertile lands of the Middle West ; and more recently 

 he has been successfully introduced into many far- western States. 



Bobwhite is one of the farmer's best friends ; his economic status is 

 wholly beneficial; he is not known to be injurious to any of our crops, 

 as what grain he eats is mostly waste grain, picked up in the stubble 

 fields after the crops are harvested. It seems to me, however, that 

 too much stress has been laid on his services as a destroyer of weed 

 seeds. Nature has provided so lavishly in the distribution of weed 



