CHAPTER II 

 BOBWHITE 



HISTORY 



THE Four Stages. It is important for the reader to start out with the 

 conception that the status of any species of game is not a static condition nor 

 a uniform trend, but rather the constantly changing result of the interplay of many 

 forces, some of which are visible and others invisible, but all dynamic. Nothing 

 is more fatal to straight thinking in conservation than to assume that we see 

 everything that happens, or that causes are simple, separate, or constant. 



To visualize the history of quail in the north central region, the reader must 

 picture four distinct stages. These did not occur in all parts of the region at the 

 same times, but they occurred in the same order, and the status of quail changed 

 greatly with each successive one. 



First comes the virgin or pre-settlement stage. Our knowledge of this is 

 conjectural only. It seems likely that quail were confined mostly to the edges of 

 prairies, and to open woods made park-like by frequent fires. There were prob- 

 ably severe fluctuations in abundance, and also distinct seasonal movements by 

 reason of changes in weather, fire, mast, seed crops, and predators. 



Next came the era of settlement and crude agriculture. The settler brought 

 with him grain fields, civilized weeds, and rail fences. He converted an increas- 

 ing area of woods into brushy stump lots, and on the prairie he added osage hedges 

 to the quail environment. Grain, brush, weeds, and hedges stabilized the quail 

 crop and extended the area of quail range. Clearings extended it further into the 

 woods; hedges extended it further into the prairies; grain extended it northward 

 into new latitudes. At the same time all these changes probably also increased the 

 per acre population. Quail were sporadically trapped, but never shot in the early 

 days. There was a gradual but very large increase in total numbers and in dis- 

 tribution, which lasted, in the greater part of this region, for more than fifty years. 



Third came the era of agricultural intensification. The weedy rail fence was 

 replaced by naked wire. Brushy woods were converted into bare pasture, and 

 hedges were uprooted from the prairie farms. With these unfavorable changes 

 came also bird dogs and shotguns, cheap ammunition, and increasing leisure. 

 These processes of modernization began early on the prairies, but only a decade 

 ago in the Ozark hinterlands. They were accompanied by a decrease in quail, 

 frequently due to overshooting, and nearly always due to a decrease in the area of 

 habitable range. 



Close on the heels of agricultural intensification came the present era of agri- 

 cultural depression, good roads and automobiles. Reversion of marginal lands 



[24] 



