58 FEATHERED GAME 



duced into several localities west of the Rockies 

 and is said to be thriving and flourishing in 

 these new homes. 



Unhappily for the sportsmen of Maine, New 

 Hampshire and Vermont, in New England the 

 Quail is resident only in the southern part, and 

 is at any season but a rare straggler northward 

 of Massachusetts. It is likely that our winter 

 weather is too severe for him, or it may be 

 that we lack grains and seeds for him to feed 

 upon when the snows have come. At all events, 

 though the sportsmen's clubs of these sections 

 have often liberated Quails in the hope that 

 they might thus make a valuable addition to 

 our list of game birds, they have rarely stayed 

 with us longer than the first season, raising 

 our hopes with their cheerful whistling through 

 one brief summer and then disappearing to 

 return no more. Whether they have moved 

 southward at the approach of cold weather (by 

 no means an unusual occurrence in the north, 

 I think) or have failed to survive the winter, 

 seems to be an open question. It is probable 

 that the former is often the true reason for 

 their disappearance, for with the small chance of 

 a grain or seed diet when New England 's winter 



