22 BOBWIIITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES. 



king snake {Lampropeltis getula) has been known to eat a clutch ox 

 eggs. At Falls Church, Va., Harvey Riley captured a black snake 

 {Bascanion constrictor) which disgorged a newly hatched bobwhite. 

 Reference has been made already to the marked decrease in the 

 number of bobwhites on the 230-acr6 farm at Marshall Hall, from 

 fifty-odd birds in July to less than a dozen in December, though not 

 more than a dozen had been shot. This decrease was probably due, 

 at least in part, to gray foxes; for in August and September these 

 animals were numerous, and often came after the chickens within a 

 stone's throw of the farmhouse. Other predaceous mammals and 

 birds of prey were not numerous, but foxes frequently were seen at 

 midday searching through pastures where there were broods of bob- 

 whites. It must be easy for a fox to exterminate a whole brood of 

 newly hatched bobwhites, and no difficult task' to catch them even 

 when three-fourths grown. Minks and weasels, when numerous, are 

 probably even more destructive to young bobwhites than to domestic 

 poultry. The domestic cat that takes to foraging in woods and 

 fields is also a menace and should be shot on suspicion, for it undoubt- 

 edly preys on game birds, as it is known to do on song birds and 

 young rabbits. 



In Maryland and Virginia the writer has found the crow jslunder- 

 ing nests of the bobwhite, and in these States the crow is an 

 enemy also of poultry. Doctor Fisher states in his Hawks and Owls 

 of the United States that of the forty-odd species which he studied 

 he found onl}' nine that killed the bobwhite. Four of these — the 

 goshawk. Cooper hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, and great-horned owl — 

 are very destructive to poultry as well as game. Dr. W. C. Strode, 

 of Bernadotte, 111., writes that bobwhite's worst enemy is the Cooper 

 hawk. "A few days ago one flew up from the roadside when I was 

 passing, and a bobwhite was dangling from one foot." During 

 November, 1900, this species so persecuted the birds at Marshall Hall 

 that they were seldom found far from cover. In one instance a 

 hawk was seen to swoop to the ground and rise with a cock bobwhite. 

 The other species of hawks and owls rarely molest quail. 



If bobwhites more frequently nested along fence rows instead of 

 in open mowing land, they would abound in many places where thej' 

 are rare. The mowing machine lays many nests bare, and they are 

 either despoiled by enemies or deserted by the old birds. At Sandy 

 Spring, Md., early in July, 1903, four nests with their eggs were cut 

 over in a 50-acre grass lot. In other hay fields several nests were dis- 

 covered in time to leave grass uncut about them, but boys robbed 

 them all. Between such lads and the crows and other enemies bob- 

 whites haye a hard time in certain sections. 



To enable them to withstand the winter, bobwhites need suitable 



