ESTHETIC VALUE. 17 



touch on the trigger to bring it to bag. When, at the advance of the 

 hunter, the covey explodes like a bomb, his skill is sharply tested if 

 he would bring one of the whirring, meteorlike projectiles to the 

 ground. Birds of a scattered covey are hard to find. Good authori- 

 ties say that when they alight they remain quiet and compress their 

 feathers to the body, with the result of withholding the scent. Many 

 sportsmen, therefore, before hunting a scattered covey, give them time 

 to run about and leave scent. 



Paradoxical as it may seem, sportsmen exert a powerful influence 

 for the protection of bobwhite. Many individuals and clubs own or 

 lease large tracts, where they maintain the birds and shoot only the 

 surplus. These enthusiasts assist in the enforcement of game laws, 

 restock depleted covers, and provide food for the birds in times of 

 scarcity. Certain clubs are organized for the purpose of holding field 

 trials, the object of which is to test the ability of competing dogs to 

 find and point birds. As retrieving is not required, the birds are not 

 shot. One of the best-known patrons of field trials recently told the 

 writer that he had not killed a bobwhite in ten years. A number of 

 clubs control each a preserve of from 5,000 to 20,000 acres, on which 

 no shooting is allowed — or, if permitted, is carefully regulated — and 

 suitable measures are taken for protecting birds and facilitating their 

 propagation. These trials are held in a score or more of States, and 

 in some of the larger contests more than a hundred dogs are entered. 

 Some owners of field-trial dogs have preserves of their own, stocked 

 with hundreds of pairs of bobwhites. Thousands of live birds for 

 the above purposes are in demand, at high prices. If the bobwhite 

 could be domesticated and reared in captivity for sale, the enterprise 

 would doubtless be very profitable. From these facts it is evident 

 that the sport of hunting bobwhite contributes to the health and hap- 

 piness of thousands of men, and that in various ways it can be made 

 to add to the prosperity of farmers and others interested. 



ESTHETIC VALUE OF BOBWHITE. 



Much money has been spent, and well spent, merely for the enjoy- 

 ment of the beauty and companionship of birds. For the protection 

 of gulls and terns along the Atlantic coast thousands of dollars have 

 been expended at the instance of bird lovers, in whose eyes these 

 delicate and graceful creatures are the crowning attractions of marine 

 landscape. In like manner the admirers of bobwhite derive esthetic 

 pleasure from his presence. To pastoral inland scenes— woodlots 

 in a green mist of young leaves, summer grass fields and bushy pas- 

 tures, brown stubble, and skeleton cornfields — the bobwhite adds a 

 distinctive charm — homely, but none the less attractive. As the bird 



