BOB WHITE. 143 



of Ontario and the State of New York to the beginning. 

 Some birds' are found beyond these limits, but they are 

 too rare to be specially sought for by sportsmen. In 

 Ontario they do not appear to be found so far north as 

 formerly, while in Dakota they are spreading to the 

 north as well as to the west. They have been occasionally 

 transplanted into Maine, and being liberated in the 

 spring, good broods would be- reared; but few would sur- 

 vive the following winter, being exterminated more by 

 the deep -shows than by the excessive cold. 



Bob Whites are found in Mexico, in the States 

 of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas, and even 

 farther south, being said by good authorities to extend 

 down to the Balize. They are also abundant in Cuba, 

 though I have never heard of them in any of the other 

 West India Islands. The Cuban bird is, by some natu- 

 ralists, made a different subspecies. The following de- 

 scription and remarks I received from Dr. H. McHatton, 

 of Macon, Ga., who for many years was a planter and 

 keen sportsman in Cuba: " The Cuban Bob Whites gen- 

 erally pair from April 1st to April 15th; the young 

 furnish good shooting about October 1st. The broods 

 are large, averaging eighteen or twenty. They abound 

 in all cultivated parts of the island, their favorite cover 

 being sugar-cane and hedges, and their favorite food 

 all varieties of grass-seed, especially caldo, santo, and 

 lechosa. They are very numerous, and increase rapidly, 

 and but for heavy storms woidd overrun the island. 

 While the shooting is done mostly before 10 o'clock a.m. 

 and after 4 o'clock p.m., it is not unusual for an average 

 brace of dogs to find fifteen or twenty coveys in that time. 



' ' Cuba, for several reasons, is probably the best quail- 

 hunting country in America; the climate is all that could 

 be desired; food is abundant all the time; there are very 

 few snakes, no carnivorous animals, except an occasional 



