Bobwhite 



31 



TABLE 4. Mexican bobwhites planted 



The table is probably far from complete, and not all of the plantings shown 

 were official. Small local plantings by sportsmen's organizations and private indi- 

 viduals are known to have been numerous, but they are often nowhere of record, 

 and sometimes have been forgotten by the sportsmen themselves. 



It seems probable that the purest native stock remaining in the north central 

 region is that of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Iowa. 



Nothing better illustrates the fundamental fallacy in the popular attitude 

 toward game conservation than the repeated expenditure of large sums for Mex- 

 ican quail. Such importations show, first of all, no realization of the fact that if 

 the quail range were in good condition there would be no need for adding to the 

 native stock except on areas entirely shot out. These areas are rare. 



Such importations further show a lack of appreciation of the extreme in- 

 tricacy of the adjustment between any local race of birds and its environment. In 

 all probability the Mexican race differs from the native enough to disturb that 

 adjustment, but not enough to hold out any probability of succeeding in an en- 

 vironment in which the native stock has already failed. 



Stoddard found in Georgia that while the Mexican race mates freely with 

 the native, and while the resulting broods are large and apparently vigorous, the 

 survival after a lapse of several years of either banded Mexicans or recognizable 

 hybrids is low compared with the survival of equal numbers of native birds. The 

 survival in the north central region, while never measured by banding experiments, 

 would probably be even lower. (The Missouri plants were banded, but the re- 

 captures never compiled.) This low survival holds out a hope that no permanent 

 dilution of our native stocks has in fact occurred. 



Western Quails. Plants of various western (and probably European) 

 quails have been made in the region. A few of these appear on Map 8. All have 

 either failed at once, or resulted at best in the survival of a local colony, without 

 capacity to spread, and usually disappearing within a few years. There is no 

 evidence whatever that any exotic quail will thrive in this region under conditions 

 which exclude bobwhite, or, in fact, any evidence that they will even survive. 



