86 The Partridge Family 



fifteen. As a rule two broods are raised in a 

 season. The principal food embraces a variety 

 of seeds and berries. The various calls, the flight, 

 habits of feeding and roosting time, are identical 

 with those of C. virginianus, and the Florida bird 

 behaves as well before dogs and affords as good 

 sport as the other. 



As many Northerners have learned, Florida 

 Bob-white shooting is not what it used to be. 

 The game, small fellows have many busy foes, 

 including snakes and beasts and birds of prey. 

 These attack old and young, and the eggs ; but 

 the worst enemy is the prowling pot-hunter, black 

 and white, who is apt to also be a trapper. This 

 kind of man knows no mercy, and as the birds 

 fall easy victims to the simplest form of snare 

 and traps, great numbers are annually destroyed 

 by such illegal methods. In addition to these 

 ravages, there is a vast amount of shooting done 

 by sportsmen from the North, who, being on holi- 

 day, naturally keep their guns as busy as possi- 

 ble. Better enforced game laws, and a persistent 

 pursuit of all law breakers and the natural enemies 

 of Bob-white, no doubt will in time restore the 

 proper head of birds. More than once, to the 

 writer's personal knowledge, have these southern 

 birds been brought north, to restock depleted 

 covers. Under the new climatic and food condi- 

 tions the type is speedily lost, and it is to be pre- 



