Bob White, the Game Bird of America. 669 



them ; then, in a bag of forty, I found twenty- four cocks to sixteen 

 hens. According to the European naturalist, Ray, the European 

 partridge hatches one-third more males than females. 



The average weight of Bob White varies considerably with the 

 nature of his feeding-ground, the weather preceding the time when 

 he is shot, and the age of the bird. Probably six and three-quarter 

 ounces is a fair average weight. In Southern Maryland, I have shot 

 a few cock-birds which weighed eight ounces and one-quarter, and 

 one even as high in weight as eight ounces and three-quarters. 

 Fifty birds shot in the middle of North Carolina, last December, 

 averaged seven ounces. Those birds were cocks and hens, old and 

 young, just as they came to bag in the field. Mr. Frank Schley 

 says: " I have often killed a bag of birds along the Monocacy and 

 Potomac bottoms in Maryland, in the month of December, that 

 would average eight ounces." Dr. Lewis, in his "American Sports- 

 man," gives a record often braces of birds shot in the neighborhood 

 of Mount Holly, New Jersey, that averaged eight ounces. 



While the woodcock and Wilson's snipe are fated to disappear as 

 civilization robs them of their restricted feeding-grounds, Bob White, 

 if protected by the enforcement of judicious game laws, will thrive in 

 the midst of cultivated lands, and will continue to test the gamecraft 

 and marksmanship of future generations. He is destined to remain 

 the game bird of America, and he is worthy of it ; for there is none 

 more impetuous in his flight, none that has such extended range in 

 his feeding-grounds and coverts, none that demands of the gunner 

 more knowledge of his habits in order to find him, and none that 

 so well the training of a dog and the eye and nerve of the 

 sportsman. We should be thankful that he, with the black bass, will 

 be spared in the relentless action of that artificial selection which is 

 slowly but surely taking from us the woodcock, the snipe, the grouse, 

 and the wild trout. 



Unlike the grouse and the European quail, our little American 

 faithful husband and devoted father. To find Bob in Mormon 

 practices is rare. Should he, however, discover that his gallant 

 bearing and spruce attire have made him doubly beloved, he will 

 show impartial devotion to his two spouses. From a fence-rail 

 overhead, with his two wives on their nrsts, not two 

 apart, he will gladden both their little hearts with his love-song. 



