BOB WHITE. 151 



The Bob Whites which have been transplanted into 

 Colorado, I am informed, do certainly breed twice, and it 

 may be also true for Florida, but I do not believe that it 

 will apply to the great proportion of the territory where 

 the birds are found. At my ranch, I have a small field 

 which is separated by several miles of dense woods from 

 any other open land frequented by Bob Whites. The 

 birds on this place are well protected in the breeding- 

 season, and the nests carefully located. These pairs rear 

 only one brood each. Last year the high water destroyed 

 several nests; some of these birds nested again, but not 

 all of them. Knowing the number of nests, and watch- 

 ing all the coveys reared on the place, I am positive that 

 no pair reared more than one brood. There was one large 

 covey of young which ^varied greatly in size. I flushed 

 it repeatedly, and there were at least three old birds, two 

 of them being hens. While my own observation leads 

 me to believe that only one brood is reared in each season 

 by a pair, I hesitate to assert this positively, for the con- 

 trary view is held by so many whose opportunities for 

 knowing the facts are equally as good as my own. Dog- 

 matic assertions should in all such matters be carefully 

 avoided. 



Another disputed question is whether or not Bob White 

 is a migratory bird. If we except what is called the ' ' run- 

 ning season ' ' in some of the Middle States, Bob Whites 

 are certainly non-migratory. Overflows, forest lires, and 

 scarcity of food will occasionally drive them from their 

 accustomed haunts, but they rarely go farther than a few 

 miles. We can not speak of them as migratory in the 

 sense that the snipe, woodcock, plover, wild fowl, and 

 other birds are migratory. The seasons neither time their 

 movements nor control the direction of them; it might 

 as well be said that a man migrates to his office for busi- 

 ness, to the restaurant for his luncheon, to the theatre 



