Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-07-21
Bob White Friend of the Farmer

loves BOD White, our common quail
or partridge" as he is usually call
ed. lie is such a fine-looking fell
low, when he flies up ON a post or
stump and looks at the landscape.
so spruce, so graceful, so gallant;
there is SO much music in his voice
as he calls out, Bob White, Bob
White, across the fields in the sun
set cool OF summer day that it is
easy to understand why he is a gem
eral taVorite. There is not one of US
who would not miss him If he came
into the orchards and meadows no
more.
1t is not only because he is a thing
OF beauty, and cheerful and in
teresting neighbor, however, that he
should be regarded with particular
friendliness. Every quail is worth
good hard money to the farmer on
whose land he takes up his abode.
AS a destroyer of weeds and insects
he has few equals. A recent writer
in the Youths companion tells of
some actual meals made by these
active and hearty little birds, and
the figures are surprising. In sin
gle day one quail has eaten 1880
plantain seeds. Other records are
$4,000 pigweed seeds or $1,000 of
lambs quarters in day, and 1000
of crabgrass at meal. When it
comes to insects his appetite is
equally good. One quail ate 5000
plant lice in day. At another time
the same bird devoured SOS mosoui-
toes in three hours and then quit
only because the supply gave out.
They eat all sorts of injurious in
sects, too, potato beetles, cutworms,
Hessian flies, boil weeyils, cinch
bugs, cooling moths, grasshoppers-
just anything that comes handy it
seems. 1t is hard even to conceive
or the vast number of injurious in
sects a covey of quail will consume
in the course of year. The de-
struction of every one of these in
sects, too, is a positive benefit to the
farmer, and for this reason alone,
one should always hesitate before
killing quail or indeed a bird of
any kind unless positively right about
it, that if it were not for the birds
1t would be a matter of only a few
years until the insects and creeping
things would have the upper hand
of us. The crops would disappear
from our fields and men everywhere
would be in danger of starvation
simply because they would be unable
to combat the countless multitudes of
insects which would devour and de-
stroy the plants upon which men de-
pend for food.
Every boy, therefore, who wanton-
ly kills a bird, or injuri es a nest, not
only does a cruel and unmanly thing,
but also makes it harder for the
farmer to raise his crops to maturity.
The protection of a quali's nest or
of brood of young ones should be
There is some excuse for shooting
Bob White after he grows up and
is able to large extent to take care
of himself but there can be abso-
lutely none for the killing of any
song bird not good for food, or for
the breaking up of any birds nest.
Let us protect the quail, then.
| If we find a nest, leave it sacredly
alone, discourage as far as possible
the roaming of worthless dogs over
| the fields regulate hunting and in
sst that never shall a covey of quail
! be completely killed out. The man
who will do this is no sportsman,
true sportsman is going to be salts
! fed with a reasonable kill" Pro-
! per protection Of our game birds
will be of benefit to both hunter and
/ farmer; but if it becomes a question
as to whether the farmer or hunter
is to prevail, the farmers rights
must always prevail over the hun
ter's wishes. No man should be al
lowed to shoot on another's land
withut permission, and always the
hunter should be under strict super
/ vision.
And while protecting our good
/ Bob, let us remember that the other
/ birds deserve the same friendship
and care. The crow is a nuisance
often; sometimes it is well to use a
shotgun on flock of blackbirds; the
English sparrow does harm by driy-
ing more useful birds away; 1t may
occasionally be necessary to make
an orchard or garden unpleasant for
the robins or catbirds; in some sec
lions the rice birds become too num-
erous; two or three hawks and one
or two species of owls are injurious.
| But aside from these Il Is safe to