bobwhites in the South or Southwest. Ten of 18 foods 

 forming 1 per cent or more of the diet of Virginia bob- 

 whites and 3 of 5 foods of Pennsylvania bobwhites were 

 found in quantities in the present study. 



Food habits of bobwhites in Illinois showed a closer 

 similarity to those of bobwhites in the South than to 

 those of bobwhites in a southwestern state. Six of 9 



whites throughout most of the bobwhite range. These 

 foods formed 1 per cent or more of the total volume in 

 II of the 12 studies reviewed. Desmodium and acorns 

 were only slightly less common, forming 1 per cent or 

 more of the diet in 10 and 9 studies respectively. 



Soybean, wheat, cowpea, and short-horned grass- 

 hoppers were found in quantities in 5 to 7 of the 12 



Table 3. — For each of several cultivated foods, foods associated with cultivation, and old-field native foods, the per- 

 centage of bobwhite crops containing that food and the percentage of the total volume of crop contents comprised by that food 

 in bobwhite crops collected in southern Illinois during the hunting seasons of 1950 and 1951 and for the two seasons combined. 



•Includes only those plant foods accounting for more than 0,25 per cent of the total food volume. 



foods that made up I per cent or more of the bobwhite 

 diet in Tennessee (Cady 1944:12) were of importance 

 in Illinois. In three Alabama studies, 7 of 16 foods 

 (Allen & Pearson I945a:9), 8 of 20 foods (Johnson & 

 Pearson 1948:12), and 6 of 16 foods (Gray 1940:16-23) 

 that made up 1 per cent or more of the bobwhite food 

 were taken in quantity in Illinois. Food habits as re- 

 vealed in two Oklahoma studies (Lee 1948, Baumgartner 

 et al. 1952) indicated least similarity to those in this 

 study; 6 of 23 and 6 of 19 foods respectively that made 

 up I per cent or more of the volumes in Oklahoma formed 

 1 per cent or more of the diet of bobwhites in Illinois. 



Corn, Korean and Japanese lespedezas, and common 

 ragweed were foods found in quantity in crops of bob- 



16 



studies reviewed. Soybean and cowpea were basic foods 

 in the Midwest and the South. In some studies insect 

 material was treated as one group; grasshoppers would 

 probably have appeared in more studies had itisects 

 been identified separately as to kind. 



Small wild bean, jewelweed, and white sassafras 

 each appeared in quantity in at least three states. Slugs 

 and bidens were not noted in quantity in any study ex- 

 cept the present one. 



A number of foods reported in appreciable quantity 

 in several bobwhite studies in other states were of minor 

 importance or were missing in the diet of bobwhites in 

 Illinois. The most conspicuous of these were the ashes. 

 Ashes accounted for at least I per cent of the volume 



