Bo bw hits 33 



Indiana (see Map 8) . Whether it follows up the east shore into Michigan is 

 not known. Special pains were taken to check up on the reality of this extension 

 of the nearly quail-less area along the lake. Ir would be tedious to here describe 

 all the detail of what this checking up consisted of. It is indicated on Map 7 if 

 the reader cares to review the evidence. It must suffice here to say that neither the 

 present observers in the area, nor the literature describing past conditions in it, 

 reveals any convincing record that quail were ever any more abundant than they 

 are now. There is one exception to this statement. Dr. Hoy in 1854 mentions 

 that quail had become abundant near Racine, where they could be observed feed- 

 ing in gardens. There is a clear inference of previous scarcity. It is barely pos- 

 sible that this lakeshore belt is subject to mild sporadic irruptions. 



The crosses in southeastern Wisconsin on Map 6 possibly show half the 

 covies that now exist. There are certainly less than half a dozen covies per 

 county. Stoddard checked up on Waukesha County and agrees that there is a 

 conspicuous absence of quail from terrain which looks like good quail country, 

 and which farther west would carry a considerable population. 



The discovery of the reason for this southward extension of the nearly quail- 

 less area would probably throw important light on questions of quail productivity 

 in the regular range. 



The north boundary of the "regular" quail range in Wisconsin parallels with 

 considerable fidelity the north boundary of the prairie soils. The extreme north 

 boundary of the nearly quail-less area in Wisconsin parallels (except for the south- 

 ward projection along the lake) the north boundary of the zone in which corn is 

 able to reach maturity, and, less closely, the north line of the driftless area. Of 

 these three relationships, those with prairie soils and corn may be the most 

 significant. 



Distribution of Abundance; Standards of Range Quality. Local 

 variations in abundance throw light on two questions: first, how many quail have 

 we left, and second, whether one range is better than another. Except where 

 other factors are very unequal, present distribution of abundance is the best index 

 of present productive capacity. 



The best way to compare the inherent productive capacity of two ranges is of 

 course to find out which can sustain the higher kill per unit area through a period 

 of years. Until sustained yield is generally practiced, however, this method can- 

 not be applied. We can only measure the present population as an index to range 

 quality. 



In the following captions rough preliminary measurements of present popu- 

 lations are described and compared, and an effort is made to unearth as many 

 leads as possible as to where, when, and why these variations occur. 



Census Methods. Three methods of measurement were tried out. The 

 first was indirect. It proposed to use the number of covies found per dog per day 

 in various localities as an index to the abundance of quail. The resulting figures 

 3 



