COPYRIGHTED BY LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES, 1906
GAME BIRDS OF AMERICA
Bob White (Colinus virginianus)
TWO
Bob White is a brisk, enterprising little fellow with a heart full of hope, as his cheery greeting will tell you. He has been subjected to much discussion. “Bob White is quail,” say some; others insist that there are no quail in America and that Bob White is partridge. An acknowledged authority states that Bob White is called quail in the North and East, while in the South and West he is partridge. Wherever the ruffed grouse is called pheasant Bob White is called partridge; where the grouse is known as partridge Bob White is called quail.
And we all know what he calls himself whenever he has his little say—and what he says of himself is gladly accepted everywhere. Bob White is a popular favorite among game birds on account of his attractive habits and the fact that he is to be found in almost all sections of the country—and wherever found he displays the qualities that make good hunting. He lives more in the open than the ruffed grouse, and by his admirers he is counted a finer game bird.
Bob White varies in color, in size, and in quality as a game bird in various sections of the United States, West Indies, Mexico, and Central America. As the ruffed grouse becomes less common and more difficult to get, on account of the disappearance of our forests, Bob White is assuming more and more the rank of the leading American game bird. For that reason the game law is strict, and sportsmen are much concerned in propagating the species. The effect of this is to change somewhat the qualities that have characterized Bob White in different localities. For example, the robust, hardy, and large-sized Bob White that was known in the New England States in past years is now extinct, and it has been replaced by a somewhat less sturdy type of bird introduced from Kansas and the Carolinas. These birds, not accustomed to the rigorous winter of the northern states, have a hard time when the weather is bitterly cold. In a severe winter in New England poor little “planted” Bob White is, in the most pathetic sense of the phrase of the day, “up against it.” He has to be sheltered and fed largely by his human friends. Some day, no doubt, as the natural law of survival works it out, Bob White will grow hardy and self-sustaining under the severest conditions in the northern states.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 34, SERIAL No. 34
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
