Bobwhite 47 



MOVEMENTS 



Movements and Management. The landowner's incentive to cultivate 

 game crops is strengthened to the extent that the crop remains on his farm, and 

 weakened to the extent that it moves to neighboring farms. Game crops which 

 tend to move require cooperative neighborhood effort, which is usually harder to 

 initiate than individual effort. 



The probability of a game crop remaining on the farm depends on the con- 

 dition of the farm, and also on an innate property of the species which we may 

 call its mobility or tendency to move. 



It is common knowledge that bobwhite is the least mobile of upland game 

 species. Stoddard found in Georgia that banded bobwhites were usually recap- 

 tured within a half mile of where banded. 



We do not know whether bobwhite in the north central region is more or 

 less mobile than in Georgia. Even a slight difference might be important because 

 of the lesser size of farm units. There is a widespread popular belief, especially 

 in Missouri, that quail migrate to a certain extent. A brief survey such as this 

 one could not determine whether this is true, but an attempt was made to marshal 

 the existing evidence, in the hope that this might stimulate large-scale banding 

 work. The actual mobility of quail in this region can be established only by 

 banding. 



If quail should prove to be more mobile in this region than in Georgia, it 

 might somewhat weaken the landowner's incentive to practice management, but 

 at the same time it would strengthen the effective radius of the upland game 

 refuges now being installed in many north central States. It would also lengthen 

 the distance from winter cover which quail may be expected to traverse to breed 

 and nest. On the prairie this is of great importance. 



Alleged Migration. The search for evidence on migration was mostly 

 confined to Missouri. Table 10 gives the affirmative evidence found in that State, 

 together with a few instances from other States which were encountered in the 

 literature. 



The word "migration" is here used to mean a seasonal movement of quail 

 with a north and south orientation. 



A careful reading of the table shows that 



(1) Three reliable laymen have seen quail fly southward across the Missouri 

 or Mississippi rivers in the fall, and have seen birds fall into the water from 

 exhaustion. 



(2) No regular ornithologist trained to critical observation has seen this. 



(3) There is no affirmative first-hand evidence that quail return north in the 

 spring. 



While it can hardly be doubted that these observed flights actually take place, 

 the absence of first-hand evidence of a return flight makes it possible to ascribe 

 the whole phenomenon to the "fall shuffle" or shift described in a later caption. 



