74 



THE GAME BREEDER 



The fact that quails : are beneficial to 

 agriculture has been promulgated by the 

 enemies of sport to induce the farmers 

 to favor laws prohibiting quail shooting 

 for terms of years or at all times. The 

 tendency of our legislation rapidly was 

 in the direction of putting an end to quail 

 shooting everywhere when the so-called, 

 "more game", movement calling for an 

 increase of game by practical methods 

 for sport and for profit was inaugurated. 

 As soon as we regard quail shooting as, 

 "A valuable by-product of agriculture," 

 as Captain Maxwell has well said part- 

 ridge shooting is, we will have an abund- 

 ance of quail everywhere in the United 

 States (excepting the northern portions 

 of the northern tier of states east of the 

 Rocky Mountains) and I have no doubt 

 the sportsmen of all classes will find 

 plenty of good quail shooting during long 

 open seasons without danger of exterm- 

 inating the birds. The qiiail easily can 

 be made plentiful in some of the 

 Canadian provinces. 



Sportsmen should remember that laws 

 prohibiting quail shooting are necessary 

 in places where no one looks after the 

 game properly, and protects it from its 

 natural and domestic enemies and from 

 climate losses. No species can with- 

 stand these losses and the losses due to 

 shooting at the same time. The Audubon 

 Societies and others interested in pro- 

 tecting birds by law should remember 

 that the prohibition of sport puts an end 

 to the practical preservation of all game 

 species and deprives the people of splen- 

 did foods which should be abundant and 

 cheap. 



All sportsmen are familiar with the 

 bobwhite, the most common species of 

 quail in the United States, including the 

 subpecies, the Florida bobwhite and the 

 Texas bobwhite, which are somewhat 

 smaller than the northern birds. The 

 bobwhite has been introduced success- 

 fully in states beyond its range and 

 thrives in Montana,* Utah and some other 



*See articles : The Introduction of Bob- 

 white in Montana, by Hon. M. D. Baldwin in 

 The Game Breeder for Nov. 1914: The Bob- 

 white in Oregon, in The Game Breeder for 

 April, 1915. 



. states (shooting being- prohibited). It 

 should be made to thrive everywhere al- 

 though thousands be shot every season. 



The other American quails or part- 

 ridges are of comparatively limited dis- 

 persion, being western and south western 

 species. 



Our object is not to repeat much that 

 has been well written for ornithologies 

 and books on field sports, but to inform 

 the reader how the birds can be made 

 and kept tremendously plentiful for 

 sport and for profit so that the shooting 

 can be lively, during long open seasons, 

 and so our tables can be abundantly sup- 

 plied. 



■ It cannot be denied that the gray part- 

 ridges of Europe are tremendously abun- 

 dant from year to year although hun- 

 dreds of thousands are shot and sold as 

 food and hundreds of thousands are 

 trapped and sold ahve for propagation. 

 Many thousands of birds have been 

 shipped to America at a single consign- 

 ment. I read, recently, an account of an 

 actual day's partridge shooting when a 

 party of ten guns shot eighteen hundred 

 and ten partridges, walking them up 

 without the aid of dogs (excepting re- 

 trievers).* I have the figures from one 

 who took part in the shooting. They are 

 larger than usual, no doubt, but there are 

 many places both in England and on the 

 continent where a bag of one hundred 

 birds in a day's shooting would be con- 

 sidered small. Other records of excel- 

 lent shooting are referred to later. 



Since the gray partridge of Europe is 

 somewhat similar to our partridges or 

 quails we should expect to make^the in- 

 digenous birds plentiful by applying the 

 European methods. I am pleased to ob- 

 serve that they have been successfully 

 appHed to our quail in many places and 

 that I have seen the birds on many 

 American farms fully as abundant as it 

 is desirable to have them; big bags are 

 made every season. I know places 

 where it is perfectly safe to shoot two 

 or three thousand quail in a season and 

 I have seen American records (when 

 visiting the places where they were 

 made) which indicated that one or two 



The Game Breeder for May, 1916. 



