26 THE AUDUBON BULEE TiN 

The Case of Bob-white 
By Paut B. Rus 
UCH interest has been centered upon quail in recent months, 
due to efforts of bird lovers in many parts of the country to 
accord this game bird the legal protection of song birds. 
Each new effort 1s followed by the sportsmen with a call to organize 
to frustrate these attempts that would deprive them of one of their most 
important game birds. Each appeal is being accompanied with the 
statement that Gilbert Pearson, President of the National Audubon 
Societies, has declared quail a game bird pure and simple and not a song 
bird. 
Dr. E. W. Nelson, of the Bureau of Biological Survey, United States 
Department of Agriculture, also held that quail should remain in the 
game bird list with reasonable allowance for hunting seasons and an 
occasional closed year when found necessary. 
It would seem that every effort of bird lovers is destined to be futile 
in the face of such statements from our highest authorities in the land 
of bird-lore; at least, the sportsmen use these relentlessly in their argu- 
ments. 
It is not a matter of record but rather of conjecture, that both of 
these gentlemen made the statements with keen regrets but in keeping 
with the existing facts. For does not your own heart quicken at the 
recollection of your childhood home, where the notes of Bob-bob-white 
gladdened its fields and meadows with its cadence of assurance? Or is 
not its cheery call in the sweet fragrance of meadows greater com- 
pensation over and above the victory-llushed moment, when a huddled 
mass of feathers falls to your aim, the little body torn and forever stilled 
in silent death? 
The State of Ohio has given quail the legal protection accorded song 
birds since 1915. Sportsmen have made much capital of this fact, 
especially so, since reports from unauthentic sources brand the experi- 
ment a flat failure. Much of their case is being built around the Ohio 
experience. But the evidence, systematically supported by reliable 
census takers from all parts of the state, and compiled by Eugene 
Swope, Field Agent for the State, and submitted in his annual report 
to the National Audubon Societies, puts quail protection in an entirely 
different light, one from which the sportsmen should also profit. Mr. 
Swope states: 
“Early in 1915, some of the Ohio conservationists and agriculturists 
were instrumental in having the Bob-white legally classed with all pro- 
tected birds of the state. Ohio bird census takers, reporting Christmas 
observations to Bird-Lore six weeks prior to the enactment of this law, 
