74 Game Survey of the North Central States 



when they do occur, usually last only a week or two, I am convinced that this 

 system has great merit in spite of its heavy labor cost. Feeding stations employ- 

 ing suspended weed shocks, grain buried in chaff or straw, or other arrange- 

 ments necessitating less frequent visits are of course preferable, but it will prob- 

 ably be difficult to get landowners to exercise enough foresight to install them. 

 On the other hand, in the face of actual emergency, it is not at all difficult to get 

 people to put out grain. 



The relation between feeding stations, feeding methods, and predators is 

 discussed under the section on predators. It should here be said, however, that I 

 found hawks, or evidences of quail killed by hawks, at a majority of the covey 

 headquarters during the Missouri feeding operations. It was quite evident that 

 these hawks did not do much execution on covies bushed up under osage or other 

 thorny cover, and vigorous with plenty of grain feed, but it was also evident 

 that the lack of either cover or the feed allowed of a sudden and probably serious 

 hawk mortality. 



One hundred thousand pounds of grain was purchased by the Missouri game 

 department during the hard winter of 192930. 



Summary. Agricultural changes are affecting quail now, as they have 

 in the past. 



The most important present changes are the grazing out of woodlots and 

 the removal of osage hedges. 



Cleaning of fencerows and roadsides is also reducing winter cover. 



All these changes decrease harborage for insect pests, but also harborage 

 for the useful birds and parasites which hold the pests in check. 



Decreasing use of wood on the farm threatens to intensify these changes. 



The fall-cutting of corn to control the corn-borer threatens to further In- 

 crease the deficiency of winter cover and food. 



The introduction of new food plants, the feeding of stock in the fields, 

 and the gravelling of highways is partially offsetting these unfavorable changes, 

 but the net trend of quail is downward on the best soils, and will so continue, 

 unless counter-forces are brought to bear on the landowner. 



Quail prefer certain weed seeds. Their alleged control of weed pests, how- 

 ever, may have been overemphasized. The factors determining the abundance 

 of ragweed, for instance, are as yet poorly known. 



Legumes often determine the extent to which quail inhabit timber. The 

 native legumes are destroyed by summer grazing. 



The revival of shelterbelt planting promises to restore some cover. 



Winter feeding of quail is increasing and probably has a perceptible effect 

 on the crop. 



QUAIL AND WEATHER 



Kinds of Weather Losses. In so far as now known, direct killing of 

 quail by weather occurs only in severe winters and during hard rains. 



