52 



Game Survey of the North Central States 



Disturbed sex ratios are known to interfere with productivity. Thus in 

 Australian rabbits an excess of males is deliberately created by trapping in enclosed 

 areas, as a means of exterminating the enclosed stock. 



It was attempted during the survey to find preliminary evidence of whether 

 a disturbed ratio ever exists in bobwhite. 



Opinions and general impressions are not acceptable evidence of such a con- 

 dition. Several sportsmen were found, however, who had made actual counts 

 of sexes in the bag, although they had failed to record these counts. Their recol- 

 lections of these counts are: 



TABLE 12. Sex ratio of Indiana quail (as determined by unrecorded counts of. bags) 



A selected list of sportsmen were asked to keep a count of their bags during 

 the 1929 and 1930 seasons. The results are summarized in Table 13. In exam- 

 ining this table the reader should realize that individual counts of less than 50 

 birds may show a ratio which is the result of chance, rather than the reflection of 

 actual conditions on the ground. The counts larger than 50 birds, however, 

 probably reflect actual conditions, and these show a preponderance of males in 

 nine cases and a preponderance of females in five. The total of all the counts, 

 which shows 52 per cent males and 48 per cent females, is of course the most 

 reliable figure, but is open to the objection that it is a composite of many locali- 

 ties. Serious local disturbances might occur without necessarily showing in the 

 composite total. 



The best datum against which to measure all the evidence is Stoddard's work 

 in Georgia. He obtained sex ratios by counting many bags and also by counting 

 trapped quail. 



The bag count on nine Georgia quail preserves killing 2,871 quail during 

 the 1924-5 shooting season showed a cock-hen ratio of 54:46. 



Four preserves killing 2,699 quail during the following year showed a cock- 

 hen ratio of 52:48. 



Stoddard quotes Edward R. Coleman, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, as finding 

 51 to 60 per cent of cocks in various years in various states. 



