BOBAWHITE. 27 
unwounded ones seek the nearest places of safety. Fresh 
cartridges inserted, at the snap of the barrels returning 
to their place the dogs spring up, and, taking the dead 
birds carefully in their mouths,. bring them’ and place 
them in the hands of their master. What lover of 
the sports of the field but has witnessed some such 
scene as I have so vainly tried to describe—a scene 
stamped upon the memory to be recalled again and again 
in the days when failing strength and numbered years 
have necessitated that the old gun, the treasured com- 
panion of many a happy day, be laid aside forever, and 
the sports of the field be enjoyed only in the recollections 
of the past! 
In many localities where Quail were formerly abun- 
dant they have become very scarce or quite extinct. 
Various causes have brought about this undesirable state 
of things, among which are the depredations committed 
by their natural enemies of the air and forest; but man is 
the chief culprit, and by shooting the birds in and out of 
season, murdering the half-grown young hardly able to 
fly before him,and by catching whole bevies in snares and 
traps of all descriptions, he has been most successful in 
exterminating the race from many a favorable locality. 
Fortunately, by introducing into such a barren spot birds 
from other places where they are still abundant, the evil 
may be remedied, for Quail soon accustom themselves 
to new surroundings and multiply rapidly; but as the 
population increases in the land, districts from which 
new stock can be drawn will become fewer in num- 
ber, and those places, where Bob White through man’s 
rapacity and foolishness has been exterminated, will 
remain tenantless of the bravest game bird in_ the 
land. 
As an article of food the Quail is a very delicate and 
