Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-12
BOB WHITE IN FORCE.
Immense Numbers of Quail in West
.ern Pennsylvania.
PECULIAR HABITS OF THE BIRD.
Becoming Educated to Its PerilOus Environ
ments.
TIE TACTICS OF THE POT HUNTER
rwKrrrrS FOR TEE DrEpIrcH.,

pleasure tnab bne pEOspec0 lOr plenty OF
game next season in Northwestern Pennsyl-
vania are better than for many years past.
1t may be said without the least exageera-
ton that there are more quail this spring
in Lawrence, Beaver and Mercer counties
than have ever been observed in April and
May before. All along the Beaver river and
its tributaries large hocks have been reported
on nearly every farm, and one can scarcely
take drive in the country in the morning
or evening without seeing two or more
coveys along the road. As the nesting season
usually begins about May 1, the quail will
now be found in pairs scattered about the
farms, and the merry notes of the male bird
Bob White, Bob White''-will be heard
every day from now till the latter part of
August, when the cool ioggy nights will
prevent any further increase OF quail popu-
lation, and Bob will abandon his fayorite
perch, and cease his whistling till the
sprlngtime comes again.
During favorable seasons three broods are
occasionally raised by one pair of quail,
and as from is to 20 young are usually
brought forth from each nest, it Will be seen
that there are good reasons for predicting an
enormous supply of birds for the coming
SHOOTING SEASON.
While It is too shamefully true that the
many unhung pot hunters, who shoot out of
season, will persist in knocking poor Bob off
his perch with charge of No. shot fired |
from an old smoothbore or fintlock, still it |
will not be beyond reasonable probability |
to estimate the number of young quail that |
will be brought out between this and the |
middle of August, in the three counties |
named, even If it does appear like the prov !
erbiA1 folly of counting chickens before |
they are hatched." From recent |
observations made while travelling |
through Mercer. Butler and Lawrence
counties. feel safe in computing |
the number Of old birds in the district at 90 |
to the square mile. This would give total |
Of 151, 500 in the ], $50 square miles in the |
three counties. Estimating that these |
151, 500 old birds will increase the total |
number Of quail in the district fourfold by |
next September, we would have q total at |
that time of 5000 quail in the three
counties, as these figures allow for every |
possible diminutlon through the various |
causes that combine to deciminate the |
quail population. 1t can easily be seen |
from these figures what q plentiful supply |
Of these fine game birds would exist always, /
If the law against hunting out of season was
enforced and sportsmen would take meas
ures to exterminate the hawks, owls and
weasels, which, next to the pot-hunters, are
the most destructive enemies that Bob
White has to contend against.
EDUCATED QUAIL.
OF late years sportsmen have noticed that /
the quail is becoming more wary and cum
ming than formerly, and the wonderful sa-
gscity they frequently manifest in their ef- |
forts to avoid the dog and gun, indicates q |
rapid development in their instinct of self |
preservation, which appears to be a clear
case of evolution resulting from their pc
culiarly dangerous environment. This bird
education, as it may with propriety be called,
makes it necessary for the sportsman to
. possess both skill and judgment, and have
the best trained and most experienced of
dogs, in order to bag his game. When a 4
flock Of quail that have been repeatedly
shot at are flushed in q stubble field or corn
field, they get up with a rush and whir of
wings that will "rattle" anyone but an ex-
perienced shooter, and go off to some dense
thicket like flash. In fact so fast do they
60 that have heard shooters, after firing
both barrels at a vanishing bird without
touching feather, declare that it was a
contest of speed between shot and bird, with
the odds in favor of the latter
Once in the thicket, the quail are almost
perfectly safe from the gun, as they lie low
and seem to have the power TO withhold
their scent SO that the dogs cannot find
them. In such places there Is no use hunt
ing them with a choke-bore gun, as when
flushed they are out of sight before any
thing like an accurate aim can be taken,
The method employed by the pot-hunter is
to load up his rusty old muzzle-loader with
g handful of shot or slugs-sometimes be
prefers gravel-and sneak silently along
some rail fence till he finds the whole flock
huddled together under a clump of briers,
SUMMING THEMSELVES
if the day be bright, or if it be raining,
gathered under a log or pile of brush for
shelter. In this position the unhung villain
finds the whole flock in a suitable way to
insure him a dinner at one fell shot.
Quickly the old fusee israised and sighted
C-l-angI and when the smoke and flying
pieces of an old weekly paper. used for
wadding, clears away, one-half the birds, or
perhaps the whole flock, futter in their
death agony on the ground, and their cow
ardly murderer rushes forward to claim his
nl-gotten booty.
No sportsman will ever be guilty of shoot
ing quail on the ground when the whole
flock is huddled together. Such conduct
would i'll become man or boy who knows
how to use the gun, and takes pride in kill
ing his birds on the wing.
The writer, who has hunted quail regu-
larly for II years, was once temped to kill
number Of quail on the ground, but under
what might be called extenuating circum-
stances. I was out with q man whom we
shall call 'tMack," who was always boast
ing of his prowess with the gun, and was
never so well pleased as when he was kill !
ing all the birds and his partner none.
Mack" was using q cylinder bore that I
would have covered a target 8x10 feet at Is
yards, and when bird got up and went
north he had only to point the old cylinder
horo in Fba aar,oa Iirao4inr ond Tra
and the bird was sure to fall. / was using
q 2-gauge Ithaca gun, full choked, and one
OF the closest and hardest hitting guns
have ever handled, and of course with such ,
a gun had no show shooting alongside of I
Mack, /" who knocked down every bird be- I
fore it got fairly started on the wing. I
sLAUGETERING BIRDS i
I managed, however, to shred few birds
at 40 yards that he missed at 20, but having Z
only three to his II, found his boasting
quite intolerable, and took to the right of /
cornfeld toward patch Of timber, intend
ing to hunt awhile by myself Along a
fence my dog made three points in success
sion and made one double and two sim
giles, making me only five birds behind
'sMack, {" who seemed to have lost all his I
luck at finding birds after left him. 1 E
continued on down to the edge of the TIM '
Der, when, just as got within 80 yards of 9
the fence, covey of about 30 birds came 7
running out from a corn shock. per- {
ceived chance to get even on MACK"
and before the birds got into the
thicket my right barrel was discharged
into their midst, and the result was nine
birds slaughtered. I was four ahead of
Mack, and once in the thicket, sent four T
loads into the root of a dead oak. the re- T
p-rts of which brought my boasting partner :
down to the edge Of the woods to see what
was up. Coming out to the fence, pre-
tended to be arranging my cartridge belt
and in order to take of nv coat, L took out Y
my game-l6 quail-and laid them on the v
grass, much to the disgust of the boastfnl Y
Mack" who realized that 1 was ahead v
and said no more that day about his prowess
Is quail shooter.