46 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



birds that may ever be hunted, you virtually take from it the 

 solicitous protective influences of the one large class of our 

 citizens who have done most for its protection in the past. 



"My experience has been that in most instances the for- 

 tunes of the quail may with a fair degree of safety be left in 

 the hands of the game protective associations which have an 

 intense personal interest in the preservation of the species." 

 The sportsmen should appreciate the stand Mr. Pearson 

 has taken on this subject. 



What They Say Atout Quail 



The following quotations show what some of them think. 

 The quotations are taken at random from issues of the Prairie 

 Farmer. The editor's comment appearing there is that of the 

 Editor of that magazine. 



M. E. Long, Lee Co., 111. — Will Bro. Wilkerson please ex- 

 plain why when a man is walking without a gun and scares up 

 a flock of quail they all fly away together, but if you shoot 

 into them they scatter and never get together again? The 

 answer is that they don't. 



Morris Walton, Schuyler Co., 111. — E. W. Nelson has some 

 queer ideas on quail. He says he can allow a reasonable 

 amount of hunting and still have a normal amount of quail left. 

 It would probably make chicken raising more profitable if we 

 would let city hunters come out and shoot part of them. The 

 argument the hunters kill only male quails doesn't hold water. 

 One wife is all a quail wants to bother with. If the males are 

 killed there will be a lot of old maid quail left that will never 

 reproduce themselves. 



Emma B. Durston, Mercer Co., 111. — Nature took care of 

 inbreeding in quail before there were hunters and will con- 

 tinue to do so. That is just the excuse of a hunter who wants to 

 keep on killing them. 



O. W. Madeen, Kane Co., 111.— Leave it to the quail to take 

 care of themselves and keep out of the way of the hawks if 

 the hunters will leave them alone. Farmers around here are 

 going to get after the hunters. They will have to stop shoot- 

 ing quail or keep off our land. 



D. Tait, Edwards Co., 111. — I doubt if quail eat chinch bugs. 

 The hunter naturally shoots the last bird to get up and thus 

 kills off the older and lazy birds. Two-thirds of the quail 

 killed are males. 



Peter Schallom, Monroe Co., 111. — Permanent protection 

 will not cause quail to multiply enough to help the farmer. 

 One hard winter will kill more than all the hunters. The real 

 sportsman respects the law, but if you have a permanent 

 closed season quail will get tame and the pot hunter will 

 get them all. 



