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OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETIES. 
One Year 25 Cents 
Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Appleton, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter, May 16, 1904, at Appleton, Wis,, under the act of Congress of Mar, 3 ’79. 
VOL. XI. 
OCTOBER, 1908. 
No. 4 
BOB-WHITE—AGRICULTURIST. 
I should like to have everybody pres¬ 
ent meet my friend, Mr. Robert White, 
or as he is commonly called, and, as in¬ 
deed he calls himself, Bob White. 
Bob-White is not running for office at 
the impending election, yet I think I can 
safely make the 
statement that 
he is one of the 
most highly es¬ 
teemed charac¬ 
ters in ourcoun- 
trv, and he is 
deservedly pop¬ 
ular. Always 
cheerful, modest, 
a model famil} 7 
man, an indus¬ 
1 
populous village and the farmers say 
that they feed with their chicken. 
Bob-White has been so long sought as 
a table delicacy that science has discov¬ 
ered only recently how valuable he is 
alive; many times more, it appears, than 
as an addition to 
trious worker, 
and a very valu¬ 
able assistant to 
the farmer, a 
good vocalist, 
and I might 
add, though it is 
no joke to Bob- 
White, that he is a very welcome addi¬ 
tion to many a banquet. 
At present, however, in Wisconsin, 
Bob-White enjoys the protection of law, 
it having been decreed by the legislature 
that to the year 1910 the life of this very 
valuable citizen shall be protected from 
the murderous assaults of other less val¬ 
uable citizens. And Bob-White seems 
to have been informed through some 
source of the legislative action. I have 
heard his voice from the very midst of a 
BOB-WHITE 
the larder. He 
is a weed de- 
strover. From 
early autumn 
until spring his 
food is necessari¬ 
ly weed seed and 
what grain he 
can glean from 
the harvested 
field. Rag-weed, 
fox-tail grass 
and pigweed 
seed are his 
staples. 
In relation to 
Bob-White’s val¬ 
uable service as 
a weed destroyer 
in only two states, the Government report 
says: “It is reasonable to suppose that in 
the states of Virginia and North Carolina 
from September 1 to April 30 that there 
are four Bob-Whites to each square mile 
of land, or 354,820 in the two states. The 
crop of each bird holds half an ounce of 
seed and is filled twice a day. Since at 
each of the two daily meals, weed seeds 
constitute at least half the contents of the 
crop, or one-fourth of an ounce, a half¬ 
ounce dailv is consumed bv each bird. 
