156 UPLAXD SHOOTING. 



the breeding and undeveloped game. There is a wide 

 discrepancy of opinion as to what period should be 

 embraced in the closed season for Bob Whites. It must 

 depend to some extent upon the locality, and also upon 

 their abundance, and even upon the number of shooters 

 who pursue them. ^^Tiere they are plentiful, and there 

 are but few who hunt them, nearly all the non-breeding 

 period can be made an open season, beginning with the 

 time when the young birds are old enough to furnish 

 sport, and ending with the commencement of the mating- 

 season — say from the 1st of October until the 1st of 

 April. This is the law in my State, and in this immediate 

 vicinity Bob Whites are not decreasing to any marked 

 extent; still the open season is too long. The heat and 

 heavy cover, and the immaturity of many of the birds, 

 make it better that the season should open November 

 1st. It should not extend beyond March ISth, and it 

 would perhaps be well, in this latitude, to close it March 

 1st — that is, let the open season be the months of Novem- 

 ber, December, January, and February. This would 

 give only four months' shooting, but it would enable us, 

 like well-conducted banks, to accumulate a reserve fund, 

 rather than, like recldess spendthrifts, to overdraw our 

 accounts and become bankrupt. Where birds have 

 become scarce, and the sportsmen are -^-ery numerous, it 

 is necessary that the open season be short. The reports I 

 have received from Indiana go to show that Bob Whites 

 have rather increased in that State, owing- in part to the 

 mild winters, and partly to a well-enforced game law, 

 which has only from October loth to December 20th as 

 an open season. In extreme cases, the absolute protec- 

 tion of Bob AYhites for several years has been found most 

 beneficial. This appears to be the case in the Province 

 of Ontario. From persistent shooting and hard winters, 

 the birds had become too scarce to furnish sport. They 



