410 FOREST AND STREAM. [Nov. i8, 1905. 
thrive near Brownsville during a term of warm years, 
yet any winter they may be killed by the cold, and niust 
always have artificial protection to insure their living 
through the winter. 
The eastern paid of Texas, as far west as the 98th 
meridian, is similar in climate and in most of its plants 
and animals to the Mississippi valley; but as we move 
.west the rainfall grows less and less, dcreasing from 
about fifty inches in the eastern part of the State to 
about ten inches in the west. Near the 98th meridian 
this rainfall diminishes to about thirty inches, and the 
country gradually becomes semi-arid. This is the region 
of the mesquite, and approaches the desert, harsh and 
forbidding,' during the long droughts, but after a heavy 
rain bursting into verdure, bloom and beauty. The 
mesquite is one of the most important plants of the 
region, for it furnishes the wood for fuel, fence posts 
and building material, while its fruit provides food for 
man and beast. If the rains .come at proper intervals, 
two crops a year are grown of the beans of the mesquite 
and screw bean. The gum of the mesquite, now un- 
known, is probably of commercial value, and will ul- 
timately be gathered and find a market. 
In the higher section to the west, and in the Pan- 
handle and on the Staked Plains, is a country character- 
ized by plants and birds and mammals which can en- 
dure a greater degree of cold. Here are found some 
birds of the northern plains, and even of the Rocky 
Mountains, the southern form of the mountain sheep, 
the kit fox and the black-footed ferret. In the moun- 
tains again occur more and more hardy species, until 
in the Davis Mountains was found a thicket of quaking 
aspens, and crossbills, blue snow birds and other north- 
ern birds were taken, indicating that here w.as a little 
area which belonged to the Canadian fauna. 
Mr. Bailey’s volume is one of fascinating interest, 
from the economic as well as from the natural history 
standpoint, and this is so true that we shall reproduce 
from time to time in future issues of the Forest and 
Stream extracts from those papers on the reptiles and 
on the mammals, which form the remainder of his 
report. The report on the birds of Texas, by H. C. 
Oberholser, which is not published here, will no doubt 
appear later. 
The Biography of a Bear. — IX. 
'while w'e were at Summit Spring the fall hegira 
or exodus of Oregon emigrants was taking place — or 
rather, going on — for these people do not take any 
place, but they are mostly going on all the time. They 
are more inconstant than the cashiers of sayings banks. 
In Oregon they are doubtless called California emi- 
grants, while in California all the responsibility is 
awarded to Oregon. They spend most of the year_ on 
the way to Oregon, or from Oregon to California, just 
accordingly as .they happen to be sidetracked the pre- 
ceding winter. Of course, they never go clear through 
to any special destination — whenever they think there 
is any danger of getting anywhere they turn around and 
go back. During seven to eight months of the year 
they can live anywhere along or in the road, and they 
do that until the rainy season or snows on the moun- 
tains make it necessary for them to hole up for the 
four or five winter months. They are not now as 
numerous as they were, for many of them have branched 
off to other roads; but, to use one of their own phrases, 
“There are quite a few of them yit.” 
The ordinary outfit of an Oregon emigrant com- 
prises a two or four-horse canvas-covered -wagon, with 
one or two women and all the way from six to thirty- 
four children in it. Enochs pid thirty-three were all 
the progeny he could count in the longest wagon we 
saw; but we did not see all of the wagons on the pad, 
and so I say thirty-four. I do not want to swindle 
them out of any of them. Whenever the national 
fecundity estimates begin to wane or dwindle, it may 
he well to look up these Orecalifornigons, for_ a few 
families of them will turn the scale — that is, if they 
can be persuaded to stop in one place long_ enough to 
be counted or estimated by the census, which, by the 
way, is not as active as the centipede, even tlpugh it 
employs more legs. They should be counted if it has 
to be done by contract. 
In the enumeration of Oregon emigrants the length 
of their wagons is of consequence. As the families in- 
crease they lengthen their wagons. The children are 
stowed mostly crosswise in them, each one being 
allowed a compartment a foot wide; if the child is 
wider, or if he grows wider, he has to get hi edgewise. 
Hence, a wagon sixteen feet long implies fourteen 
children, allowing two feet off for the seat, usually oc- 
cupied by the parents; if the wagon is twenty feet long, 
say eighteen children; but after a wagon is extended to 
twenty-eight or thirty feet, it is as long as can be used 
on mountain roads, where there are many crooks and 
turns— so after that length has been reached they add 
another wagon, which is called a trailer, or back-action. 
Of course, the children do not stay in the wagon 
all the time, so in counting them it would be easier to 
measure the wagon or wagons. It would be useless to 
try to count them while they are swarming, and they 
always swarm when the wagon stops. Besides, there 
are dogs, horses, mules, cows and goats with the outfit, 
and they get in the way. 
One pleasant evening, when we were eating supper 
again, a long wagon stopped near us and the couple on 
the seat climbed down and proceeded to unhook their 
horses, preparatory to camping. They had four horses 
in the team, several loose animals and three or four 
dogs. The wagon was covered with the usual canvas arch, 
and tow-headed children peered from every loop-hole 
and aperture. They were in the act of swarming, when 
the man closed the wagon at the rear and the woman 
barricaded the front. She shouted in a treble voice to 
some of them and seemed to be dividing them into 
squads. It afterward developed that they could not all 
be permitted to come out at one time as there was only 
clothing enough — even such as it was — for a dozen or 
so of them, consequently several squads had to remain 
in ambush and only the dress corps might deploy. 
iWhile the woman was in command, the man took the 
horses away to water them. 
It appears that something excited Jack’s curiosity, 
and being fond of children — even dirty ones — he went 
over to the wagon and climbed into it from the back, 
just as the strange dogs discovered him and assailed 
him from the rear. He was somewhat alarmed, and, as 
we noticed, he shot into the wagon in a hasty, pre- 
cipitant manner. He only stayed in the wagon a 
moment, for the spaces were all occupied and one of 
the fiercest of the dogs followed after him. In fact, the 
bear almost immediately emerged from the forward 
end of the wagon very impulsively, sprang down with- 
out hesitation and then went up a tree with what 
alacrity he needed, the dog being a little too late to 
connect. Incidentally and all about the same time (for 
I remember looking at my watch) the woman screeched 
and that wagon went into active eruption like a volcano, 
or as much like one as anything I can recall at this 
time. Aside from the distressing, nature of the dis- 
turbance, it was really wondrous the way young Ore- 
gonians of all degrees of size, shape, gender and nudity 
seemed to shoot out of there. It would seem that they 
all knew a bear when they saw one in the wagon with 
them, and, in the absence of any further particulars, 
they vacated their quarters with spontaneous unanimity. 
Meanwhile the emigrant’s dogs were after Jack, our . 
own dogs were after the other dogs, the woman ran 
after the man, the man ran for the wagon, the children 
were scooting in all directions, some of the horses had 
broken away, and we thought we had better run for 
the man to keep him from getting into action with his 
gun. Taken altogether, there was a great deal going 
on in that echoing arena in the forest. Enochs often 
asserted that, considering the suddenness of the insur- 
rection at a calm and peaceful hour, it was an event 
of historical importance and ought to be chronicled. 
The only way it was used, however, was by that emi- 
grant who talked about it all the way to Sacramento 
and back again to Oregon. In fact, he made it pay, 
for he exaggerated the account in his travels, summing 
up to the effect that they had been raided by a grizzly 
and had lost almost all their clothing and provisions 
in the stampede, thus working upon the sympathy and 
generosity of every one he could reach — the old scheme 
of making misfortune or disease a commodity. His 
story as he told it was doubtless worth a donation. 
The truth is, no one was hurt and nothing was lost 
but a little equanimity, or possibly a few of the children 
who went into the woods and kept going. We gave 
the man a quarter of fine venison as some little return 
for the entertainment he and his outfit had furnished, 
even if it was not altogether premeditated and volun- 
tary. The venison seiwed to diversify their bill of fare 
for one meal. 
Jack was somewhat disappointed in this adventure, 
for he began to lose faith in the cordiality of people. 
He had intended merely to look in upon the children, 
and would have enjoyed a visit with them, but the at- 
tack of the dogs and the resulting hullaballoo- he failed 
to appreciate or comprehend. When he felt like it, he 
came down from the tree, slapped one or two dogs 
about as far as they cared to go for awhile, and got 
around for his supper with his usual infallibility and 
devotion. I chained him up for the night to prevent 
possible disturbance, for I was inclined to think that 
the Oregonian would enjoy - getting even with Jack 
by any good, safe method. ’ ■ 
We had decided to move along upon the day follow- 
ing, for we had remained in one place about as long as 
we could, not because it was cheaper to move than 
pay rent, but because we were full of ambition and 
energy. Ransacker. 
The Quails of the United States. 
BY SYLVESTER D. JUDD, ASSISTANT, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
{Continued from page 893.) 
Ffoit as Food. 
Unlike the catbird and the cedarbird, whose food con- 
sists, respectively of 50 to 87 per cent, of fruit, the food 
of bobwhite for the year includes only 9.57 per cent, 
of fruit. It is least frugivorous in spring and most so 
in June and in December and January, taking 20.1 per 
cent in the summer month and a little over 18 per cent, 
during the two winter months. If more birds collected 
in June had been available for examination, probably 
the percentage of fruit would have been lower. The 
December percentage is evidently characteristic, for it 
was based on. the examination of about 200 stomachs. 
In early spring wild winter-cured berries, in May 
strawberries, later the Rubiis fruits — thimbleberry, dew- 
berry, and highbush blackberry — and in late summer 
and autumn an endless profusion of the year’s harvest 
yield the bobwhite an accessible and abundant food sup- 
ply. In late fall and winter, when snow covers the 
seeds, fruit doubtless keeps it from starving. In Decem- 
ber it forms nearly one-fifth of the food for the month. 
Sumac, wax-myrtle, rose, and bayberry are the main 
winter supply. Poison-ivy berries are eaten occasion- 
ally. Rose hips often project from the snow and furnish 
timely food. At Falls Church, Va., and at Cabin John 
Bridge and Marshall Hall, Md., tracks of coveys in 
deep snow led up to rose shoots to which partly eaten 
hips were clinging. Sumac and other plants of the 
genus Rhus form 1.60 per cent, of the annual food, and 
during December the proportion of Rhus alone is 10.50 
per cent. Of twelve birds shot during December at 
Porters Landing, S. Dak., near the bobwhite’s northern 
limit, by W. C. Colt, each had eaten from 100 to 300 
of the carmine sumac berries, and altogether the sumac 
had furnished 90 per cent, of the food they contained. 
Bayberry and wax-myrtle are as important along the 
coast as sumacs are inland. Berries of wax-myrtle were 
found in the stomachs of fifteen out of thirty-nine birds 
collected during November, December and January, 
1902 and 1903, in Walton county, Fla. One hundred 
and twenty bayberries had been eaten by one bird 
taken in July, 1901, at Shelter Island, N. Y. Both these 
fruits last through the winter and well into May, af- 
fording excellent provision just when it is most needed. 
In spite of its frugivorous tastes and constant associa- 
tion with orchard crops, the bobwhite is not often 
known to injure cultivated fruits. M. B. Waite re- 
ports that near Odenton, Md., it sometimes picks 
ripening, berries. Yet birds that rvere kept in captivity 
several i-nonths refused strawberries when they were 
hungry. Cultivated cherries were found in a few 
stomachs, but the bobwhite is not an arboreal ieedcr 
and does not damage this crop. During June ' at 
Marshall ' Hall it was repeatedly observed feeding 
greedily upon the fruit of running dewberry vines. It 
probably does no serious harm, however, to cultivated 
bush varieties of Rubus, such as the thimbleberry, the 
raspberry, and the blackberry. It is fond of wild grapes, 
and a number of crops contained as many as twenty- 
five frost grapes {Vitis cordifolia). Hence it might be 
expected to injure cultivated varieties, for its relative, 
the California quail, sometimes plunders vineyards; but, 
so far as the writer knows, vineyards in the east have 
sustained no appreciable damage from the bobwhite. 
In summing up the frugivorous habits of the bob- 
white, , it may be said that the present investigation 
shows no appreciable injury to cultivated fruit, but a 
marked liking for wild fruit. It may be interesting to 
note, also, that the bobwhite is not nearly so frugiv- 
orous as the ruffed grouse. 
List of Fruits Eaten. 
Although the percentage of wild fruits yearly con- 
sumed is comparatively small, the variety is great, as 
shown by the appended list, which includes only those 
actually ascertained to have been eaten. A few careful 
observers could easily double the number: Cabbage 
palmetto, saw palmetto, Solomon’s seal, greenbrier, wax 
myrtle, bayberry, mulberry, sassafras, thimbleberry, 
high bush blackberry, dewberry, strawberry, rose, haw, 
apple, cultivated cherry, wild cherry, poison ivy, dwarf 
sumac, staghorn sumac, smooth scarlet sumac, holly, 
black alder, climbing bittersweet, frost grape, flower- 
ing dogwood, sour gum, wintergreen, huckleberry, blue- 
berry, ground-cherry, nightshade, elder, black haw, 
honeysuckle, partridge berry, sarsaparilla, woodbine. 
Leaves and Buds as Food. 
The bobwhite does not approach the ruffed grouse in 
destructiveness to leaves, buds and tender shoots, though 
occasionally it samples them. It eats the leaves of sorrel 
sometimes, both yellow sorrel {Oxalis stricta) and red 
sorrel (Rumex acetosella) . It has been known to take 
the leaves of cinquefoil {F otentilla) , and is extremely 
fond of both red and white clover. Captive birds ate 
grass, lettuce and chickweed. 
Insects as Food. 
Notwithstanding statements to the contrary, published 
and unpublished, the bobwhite eats insects in every month 
of the year. They form 15.05 per cent, of its, entire food 
for the year. From June to August, inclusive, when in- 
sects are most numerous, their proportion in the food is 
35-97 per cent. The variety of insect food is large. In 
the present investigation 116 species have been noted, and 
further study will doubtless greatly increase the number. 
Moreover, the large proportion of injurious insects habit- 
ually eaten renders the services of this bird more valu- 
able than those of many birds whose percentage of insect 
food, though greater, includes a smaller proportion of 
injurious species. Conspicuous among the pests destroyed 
are the Colorado potato beetle, twelve-spotted cucumber 
beetle, bean leaf-beetle, squash ladybird, wireworms and 
their beetle, and May beetles. Its food also includes such 
weevils as corn billbugs, imbricated snout beetle, clover- 
leaf weevil, cottonboll weevil; also the striped garden 
caterpillar, army worm, cottonboll worm, and various spe- 
cies of cutworms ; also the corn-louse ants, red-legged 
grasshopper. Rocky Mountain locust, and chinch bug. 
The bobwhite does not merely sample these species, as do 
many other birds ; it eats some of them in considerable 
numbers, for crops examined have contained, respectively, 
a dozen cutworms, an equal number of army worms, 
thirty Rocky Mountain locusts and forty-seven cotton- 
boll weevils. This bird also destroys striped cucumber 
beetles by the score, potato beetles by the hundred and 
chinch bugs in great numbers. From June to August, 
inclusive, insects and their allies form, as previously men- 
tioned, about a third of the food. Of this beetles make 
up nearly half, or 15.37 per cent. ; bugs, 8.54' per cent. ; 
caterpillars, 1.37 per cent. ; grasshoppers, 6.93 per cent. ; 
miscellaneous insects, 1.33 per cent., and spiders, with 
other invertebrates, 2.43 per cent. 
Beetles Eaten. 
The beetles mo.st largely destroyed are ground beetles, 
leaf-eating beetles and weevils. Naturally, because of the 
terrestrial habits of the bobwhite, ground beetles, in spite 
of their vile odor and irritating secretions, are picked up 
oftener than the other kinds. Experiments with caged 
birds prove that even the most pungent forms are 
relished. Ground beetles are numerous in species and 
superabundant in individuals. One can form no adequate 
idea of their numbers except at night. Arc lights kill 
them by thousands. The writer has known one species 
{Harpalus pennsylvanicus) to enter open windows in the 
evening in swarms. They have an irritating secretion, 
which if applied to the skin soon raises a blister. Ground 
beetles are more or less predaceous, hence the whole fam- 
ily was formerly considered beneficial. Later study has 
resulted in their division into three classes : The most 
carnivorous species, possessing sharp, curved jaws for 
capturing and killing other insects; the least predaceous 
forms, having blunt jaws and eating considerable vege- 
table matter; and a class intermediate between these two. 
The first class contains highly beneficial beetles which 
destroy great numbers of insect pests, while the blunt- 
jawed class includes some injurious species that feed on 
crops. Only a few of the bobwhite stomachs examined 
contained the useful sharp-jawed beetles, but many con- 
tained the blunt-jawed species, especially such forms as 
Amara sp., Agonoderus pallipes, Anisodactylus baltimor- 
ensis, Anisodactylus rusticus, Harpalus pennsylvanicus 
and Harpalus caliginosus. At Marshall Hall, in August, 
1902, a covey of bobwhites was seen greedily eating 
beetles of the two species of Harpalus named above, 
which were numerous in wheat stubble overgrown by rag- 
weed. The meadow lark, also, was feeding on them. The 
liking of the bobwhite for Harpalus pennsylvanicus was 
further proved by experiments with caged birds. It eats 
