Bobwhite 87 



Allowable Kill. One of the first questions in game management is the 

 percentage of the annual crop which may be safely killed without diminishing 

 the crop for the succeeding year. Table 19 summarizes the known kill on tracts 

 of known acreage and population found during the survey. Few quail hunters 

 have as yet begun to think in terms of population and productive capacity per 

 acre, hence usable figures were found to be very hard to obtain. 



Cases 6 and 7 represent intentional under-shooting. Winter influx is sus- 

 pected in cases 2, 3, and 8. Winter influx is known not to occur in case 9. One 

 covey leaves. Case 6 is based on careful census and written records. 



All of the figures in the table except cases 1, 2, 7, and 9 are weak in that 

 they do not represent the orderly harvesting of a crop through a period of years, 

 but rather merely the known kill during a single year. The latter may be greater 

 or less than the sustained productive capacity. Case 9 might represent sustained 

 production, were it not for the fact that during the period covered there was a 

 steady clearing away of coverts and corresponding shrinkage of quail population. 

 Hence the reported kill can hardly represent sustained yield. 



For the present, therefore, the possible sustained yield of quail must be 

 guessed at by analogy with other regions. Stoddard considers a 33 per cent kill as 

 about the limit of safety in Georgia. The table possibly contains indications that 

 a higher limit would be safe on well-managed lands in the best parts of the north 

 central region. Any kill of over 50 per cent, however, must for the present be 

 regarded as unsafe. 



It should not be overlooked that the bag never represents the total kill. To 

 the bag must be added a crippling loss of unknown and variable magnitude. H. J. 

 Bowman has kept a record of dead birds lost, and crippled birds seen to be hit, 

 through a period of years, and says that it aggregates, on the average, 3 per cent 

 of his bag. Judging from similar figures kept by the writer on southwestern 

 quails, 3 per cent must be about the lowest possible crippling loss, and is prob- 

 ably attained only by the most conscientious sportsman with the best of dogs on 

 favorable ground. The average crippling loss in bobwhite is estimated to run 

 nearer 10 per cent of the bag, or even higher. 



On tracts where the bag is 33 per cent of the population, it is therefore 

 probable that an additional loss of three to ten per cent of the bag, or one to four 

 per cent of the population, occurs through crippling and losing birds. 



Figures for the total kill of quail by states are lacking except in Minnesota, 

 where licensees are required to report the season's bag as a condition of renewal 

 of license. The total kill of quail thus reported from Minnesota is as follows: 



Year Quail Year Quail Year Quail 



1919 6,100 1923 9,100 1927 



1920 9,500 1924 9,170 1928 



1921 7,500 1925 1929 2,700 



1922 4,300 1926 



