i66



The America?i Bobwhite.



Chat, suggesting now the call of a cat to its kittens, now the

scolding of a caged gray squirrel, now the alarm notes of a

mother grouse blended with the strident cry of the guinea hen.

As a finale sometimes came the loud rasping noise, not unlike

the effort of a broken-voiced whip-poor-will. The favourite

calling stations were rail fences at a height from five to ten feet,

and the limbs of trees along fence rows.”


As a rule the Bobwhite appears to be non-migratory,

though in some regions there is a tendency to local migration.

In Virginia and Maryland they generally leave their summer

quarters at the approach of winter and congregate near the

larger watercourses.


When pursued these birds often seek the shelter of woods,

but at night they regard the open country as the safest place to

sleep. They roost on the ground, a covey forming a solid ring

with tails in the middle and heads facing outwards.


As to the value of*this fine Quail to the agriculturist the

author of the report now under notice may be quoted.


“In summing up the relations of the Bobwhite to agriculture

it will be well to emphasize certain facts developed by our

investigation of its food habits. In the first place, careful

observations at Marshall Hall, where the acreage under cul¬

tivation is large and the Bobwhite abundant, and less

extended investigations elsewhere afford no evidence that

the species does appreciable injury to crops of grain or fruit.

Further, its habit of destroying weed seeds is of much

economic importance. For instance, it is reasonable to

assume that in the States of Virginia and North Carolina,

from September i to April 30, the season when the largest

proportion of weed seed is consumed by birds, there are four

Bobwhites to each square mile of land, or 354,820 in the two

States. The crop of each bird holds half an ounce of seed

and is filled twice a day. Since at each of the two daily

meals weed seeds constitute at least half the contents of the

crop, or a quarter of an ounce, a half ounce daily is con¬

sumed by each bird. On this basis the total consumption of

weed seeds by Bobwhites from September 1 to April 30 in

Virginia and North Carolina amounts to 1,341 tons. It is to



