The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-06-03
Nature Study.
THE PARTRIDGE.

partridge or quail, (colinus virgin
ianus) sometimes called the Bob
White" Says Mr.. Pearson:
This bird probably brings more
wealth into the Southern States than
does any other one species of the
feathered tribe. They are such uni
versal favorites among sportsmen that
thousands of men journey to the
South each winter to shoot them. In
travel, in the building of club-houses,
in the employment of numbers of
trainers and guides, hundreds of thou
sands of dollars are annually put into
circulation. Besides this, the hunters
usually pay the landowners for the
privilege of cunning on their prem
Uses. It is a universal custom over
large areas of the South for the
sportsmen regularly to pay the taxes
on the land for the sole privilege of
shooting on it. In Guilford County,
North Carolina, over $1,000 was paid
in taxes the past year by parties who
hold contracts of this character. More
than twice this sum was paid by the
sportsmen to trainers, wardens, and
cooks.
Whatever may be said against this
system by lovers of birds, there are
some things which can of a surety be
said in its favor. The sportsmen who
pay for the privilege of hunting, en-
ploy wardens to keep away the heter-
ogeneous throng of local gunners,
many of whom are pot hunters, and
some even who frequently spend their
time in shooting "for fun" every
mocking-bird, sparrow, thrush, or
woodpecker which may happen to ap-
pear. Sportsmen hunt only during a
small period of the year, and their kill
ing, as a rule, does not cause any *
tensive losses to the birds. In winter,
when severe weather renders difficult
the task which the birds have OF OBJ
tanning their food, it is the custom
of the sportsmen to nave the snow
scraped away at different places about
the fields and bushels of peas, wheat,
and cracked corn put out for them.
The cartridges soon learn these
places, and come here regularly for
the food so kindly spread for them.
Nor are they the only birds which
profit by this generosity. Many other
grain and seed eating birds enjoy
these opportunities and gather at
these wonderful spots of plenty. Guam
titles of the little feathered people are
thus tided over periods of temporary
famine. 1t is a matter of common OBJ
servation that in sections where this
tax-paying system has been put into
practice the numbers of cartridges
are on the increase.
The partridge makes her nest on the
ground beneath some bush or grass
cluster, and there deposits her hand
full of pure white eggs, the beauty of
which is soon married by the stains
from the dead grass blades on which
they rest. The number of eggs laid
in a nest varies from twelve to TWEEN
ty. The young are able to run almost
as soon as Matched. One of the most
interesting experiences of our fields
in summer is to discover a family of
bOb-whites the young of which are as
yet unable to fly. The parents at nee
fain lameness, and, with cries of dis
tress, futter along the earth before
the intruder, adroitly seeking to draw
him from the vicinity. In many re-
gions two broods of young are reared
in a season. These families usually
unite after the second brood appears.
Sometimes two pairs of partridges
will combine their families and all
feed for a time together. / have seen
as many as sixty of these birds togeth-
er in the woods, and have observed
three sizes of young accompanied by
| old birds.
The food of the partridge in sum-
mer consists of many kinds of grass
hoppers, moths, bugs, and other in
sects, together with any grain which
may be picked uD about the fields. In
winter the birds frequent swamps and
creek bottoms to gather berries from
| the bushes, and venture into the fields
on excursions for weed seeds and such
grains of wheat and corn as may have
been left on the ground at harvest.
The partridge is a cheerful bird. His
clear, ringing whistle in springtime,
which he produces in calling to his