BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 373 



strict enforcement of the law, and this bird holds its own fairly 

 well. The past three winters have not been severe, and now 

 (1911) the Quail is increasing locally in southeastern Mas- 

 sachusetts, and parts of Rhode Island and Connecticut in 

 territory where very few birds have been available for re- 

 stocking. A few have been turned out here and there, which 

 no doubt have swelled the total somewhat. 



Much may be done to preserve the Bob-whites during 

 winter by feeding (see page 581), but if they are at large dur- 

 ing a heavy storm, when the snow above them freezes hard 

 in the night, nothing can save them, as they will starve and 

 freeze in a few days, or, if they break out before death en- 

 sues, they are so weak that they cannot escape cats, dogs and 

 hawks. 



The belief is held quite generally in southeastern Mas- 

 sachusetts that this bird rears two broods. Mr. E. J. Boyle 

 of Boston says that he has shot the old birds in October and 

 afterward found their young so small that they could be 

 caught under a hat. Many witnesses tell similar tales. Such 

 stories are the best possible argument for a later open season. 



Bob-white comes in close contact with the crops on the 

 farm year after year, yet seldom appreciably injures grain or 

 fruit. Through the investigations of the Bureau of Biological 

 Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture, it is 

 now well known that Bob-white ranks very high as a destroyer 

 of many of the most destructive insect pests. Large numbers 

 of these pests are eaten. I have devoted several pages in 

 Useful Birds and their Protection to the food and habits of 

 Bob-white, but some recent experiments with captive birds 

 by Dr. C. F. Hodge and Mrs. Margaret Morse Nice have given 

 us further interesting facts. Mrs. Nice gives the following as 

 eaten by captive birds. Each number of insects given rep- 

 resents the largest number eaten during a single meal by one 

 bird. Chinch bugs, one hundred; squash bugs, twelve; plant 

 lice, two thousand three hundred and twenty-six; grass- 

 hoppers, thirty-nine; cutworms, twelve; army worms, twelve; 

 mosquitoes, five hundred and sixty-eight; potato beetles, 

 one hundred and one; white grubs, eight. The followmg 



