14 BOB WHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES. 



•It is the general opinion that with the on-coming of winter the 

 bobwhite is found less often in the open fields, where withered herba- 

 ceous plants afford but scant protection from enemies, than in dense 

 bushy Ijriery coverts and woods. 



In Maryland and Virginia the scattered and depleted coveys after 

 Ihe shooting season evidently unite into large bevies. Their favorite 

 resort in severe weather is a bank with southern exposure and suitable 

 food supply. At Marshall Hall during one of the heaviest snowfalls 

 of the season, when the Potomac was frozen over and the thermometer 

 near zero, a covey was always to be found on the southeast side of a 

 steep bank bordering a large swamji. Here the birds found food 

 and warmth, for the rays of the sun fell on this slope so directly 

 that even when the snow elsewhere lay from 3 to 6 inches deep it was 

 here melted or remained only in patches. It was noticeable that when 

 snow was on the ground the birds ventured only a few rods from 

 cover, a fact that apparently indicated their appreciation of danger 

 from the numerous hawks and foxes. At Kinsale, Va., the writer 

 found bobwhites crossing open fields when there Avas an inch or two 

 of snow, though for the most part they kept close to cover. In April 

 and May the birds again venture out into the open, and they breed 

 M'hen vegetation. is sufficiently grown to conceal the nests. 



At Marshall Hall little oval pits in dry soil, in which quail had 

 been dusting, were found in various situations, usually under cover 

 of weeds and bushes about the fields. Dusting is a part of the toilet 

 of all gallinaceous and manj' other birds, and may also be a protec- 

 tion against vermin. 



BOBWHITE AS AN ALLT OF THE FARMER. 



In summing up the relations of the bobwhite to agriculture it will 

 be well to emjahasize certain facts developed by our investigation of 

 its food habits. In the first place, careful observations at Marshall 

 Hall, where the acreage under cultivation is large and the bobwhite 

 abundant, and less extended investigations elsewhere afford no evi- 

 dence that the species does appreciable injury to crops of grain or 

 fruit. Further, its habit of destroying weed seeds is of much eco- 

 nomic importance. For instance, it is reasonable to assume that in 

 the States of Virginia and North Carolina, from September 1 to 

 Ajoril 30, the season when the largest proportion of weed seed is con- 

 sumed 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 seeds 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 consumed by 

 each bird. On this basis the total consumption of weed seeds by 



