FOREST AND STREAM 
269 
Feeding the Quail in Winter 
With Side Notes That Show How Simply This May Be Done By The Merest Tyro 
By Robert Page Lincoln. 
will not be one of vast recognition and loss to 
our friends, the farmers. 
Every year the old covers are being sur¬ 
rounded and cut to ground. Weeds and waste 
material are being demolished. Rail fences, well 
known for their protective nature as shelters for 
the quail, are being removed. Grain in the fields, 
easy to pick up, is quite a thing of the past, and 
as a consequence it is starve to death or freeze 
to death for the game birds in many localities, 
unless the farmers can be depended upon for a 
helping hand in their care and protection. 
I have wondered often if there is any more 
genuine expression of benevolence than that of 
showing one’s humane principles by feeding the 
birds in winter. We have but to look at the at¬ 
tention shown by certain European countries, 
where the people feed the birds throughout the 
winter, to realize how deep is the inborn love in 
them for the wonderful feathered choristers. In 
They Love Me Only in Open Season. 
Sweden we find this love at the height of its ex¬ 
pression. Feeding the birds in the winter is 
there an institution, and Christmas would not be 
Christmas in that land without its serious atten¬ 
tion to the birds being well cared for. 
I look forward to a day in this country when 
conditions will be such that we may become as 
enthusiastic as they; when our ruthless youth 
will lay aside the gun for the grain sack, and 
when parents will have enough broadmindedness 
to educate their children in a righteous love for 
Nature, instead of imparting the dismal spirit of 
money-grubbing and robbery, an educational fea¬ 
ture that is only too well instilled in their plastic 
brains to the exclusion of everything tending 
toward pure honesty and religious effort. 
Naturally, in the struggle for existence we are 
too confined to be enabled to rest our minds fully 
upon the feature. In the turmoil and uncer¬ 
tainty of conditions, amidst the strife in the in¬ 
dustrial world, before the inevitable great change 
takes place there is bound to be only a compara¬ 
tive few who must direct the protection and 
preservation of our game. Future generations 
may be able to witness a new spirit of energy 
in this respect, when, the pressure removed, 
things have been so instituted that all may have 
a chance, at some time or another, to appreciate 
the marvels and beauties of Nature, not alone 
the very few, as depicted in the present day. 
We are eminently ripe for a change in things. 
The preservation of our forests and our game is- 
uppermost in many people’s minds. Tree plant¬ 
ing is yet in its unmistakable infancy; likewise 
the raising of game upon preserves. But in the- 
future it will be a common thing. It is inevit¬ 
able. The selfishness of the American people to¬ 
day will not stand for the game preserve. Hav¬ 
ing destroyed the chances of Nature to hold her 
own through primitive sources of reproduction, 
we must use artificial means to again attain re¬ 
spectable game conditions, if it can be done. A 
system as perfect as that in England is quite 
above assailment, though it goes beyond the word 
to say but that the poor have small representa¬ 
tion, in comparison with rich land owners who 
reap a profit through such enterprises, putting it 
on a money basis. 
Institute the game preserve idea here, for in¬ 
stance. Allow men to raise game therein, with a 
long, open season, when game may be shot and 
sold in the open market, for about six months, or 
less, in the year, and you have an incentive to the 
reproduction of any specie. The idea is this: 
In the present day with its multitudinous harrow¬ 
ing conditions you cannot swing anything save 
where money comes in as the foundation of the 
The Feeding Box Covered. 
(See next page). 
impulse. Money we cling to. It is God to at 
least two-thirds of us. Institute, therefore, the 
game preserve idea, put it on a money-producing 
basis, and you will have taken the first step in 
advancing one of the greatest industries this 
country ever knew. The people’s attention will 
be riveted to it. As it remains to-day, a thing 
apart from the attention of the people, the game 
must falter and decline, despite all your laws, 
I T is during the rigorous months of winter 
that lovers and protectors of our wild game 
may find time to show their sincere apprecia¬ 
tion of its existence by caring for it as much as 
possible, and by actually feeding it, especially in 
bitter weather. Recent hard winters have meant 
much as a destroyer of that brilliant little bird, 
the bob-white. It is difficult to say just how de- 
A Successful Feeding Box. 
(See next page). 
structive a certain winter not long ago really 
was, but certain it is that numbers of quail sacri¬ 
ficed their lives, never more to be heard in the 
balmy months of the pleasant summer-time in 
the wild, or near-wild covers. 
It really is remarkable, though not strange, 
how readily quail will abandon all fear when cold 
weather comes upon them and they see that their 
only chance is to depend upon man for feed 
and shelter, and will then come into the farm¬ 
yards and practically eat with the fowl. In some 
places, where kindly and considerate souls are 
found, the quail have been carefully taken care 
of, with the result that they have become semi- 
domesticated, casting aside all fear. There is no 
doubt that innumerable bevies sacrifice their 
lives by coming into farm-yards, but it is the 
only chance they have. 
A well-known man in Connecticut has made 
the assertion that quail die in winter from lack 
of the grit that helps them to assimilate their 
food. This must be true, but it is only one of 
the agencies of a destructive nature that are 
rapidly circumventing our best beloved bird, 
the quail. Gloomy be the day when we allow this 
rare feathered friend to slip out of our reach. 
If we know love for them, let us feed them this 
winter in the many farm-yards and coverts 
throughout the land, that we may at least hear 
their cheerful notes next summer, if we may not 
hunt them in season. That all should collaborate 
in this great work goes without saying. The 
fascination of studying the birds at close quar¬ 
ters should be one of interest to all, and cer¬ 
tainly the expenditure in grain or cracked corn 
