BOB WHITE. 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 



