Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1883 — Quails. [ARTICLE]

Quails.

A circular letter from Mr. A. C. Lanier, a well-known and intelligent sportsman, of Madison, has been laid on the desks of members of the legislature. It gives facts curious to hunters as to the increase and deorease of the quail orop. It is not the gun that destroys so many birds, but the oold waves that sweep down from the north that freezes them to death as they sit huddled together in the field. Whenever the temperature falls eighteen or twenty degrees below zero the quails are frozen to death in whole oovies. They rarely seek sheltered place to roost, but are usually found in the open field, often times in the most exposed field. “Dur ing the seasons of 1854 and 1855,” he continues, “The quail were mqre abundant than ever known before or sinoe in this state. The three proceeding winters had been mild, and the summers dry and favorable to their nestings, but the winter of 1856 almost destroyed the entire orop. When spring oame and summer the whistle of the male bird was rarely heard. When the season arrived for shooting, it was a rare thing to find a

from twenty to twenty-five degrees below zero. Thousands and tens of thousands of birds were frozen to death before noon. From 1866 to 1881 the increase was slow. It more than once occurred where the winter was mild that the summer was wet and unfavorable for nesting, and so no increase took place. The winter of 1880 (like thoee of 156 and *64) was also very destructive to the quail. In many portions of the state one-half or more of the crop perished from oold, and in other portions nine outof ten died from starvation, the ground being covered with snow for a long time. The exoessive oold of winter and a wet summer both retard the increase of quail. Last summer was a fair illustration of the injurious effect of a wet season. The first nestlings of quail and the prairie hen were both drowned out by the exoessive rains of May, June and July. Many of the quail had a second brood. The prairie hens never have but one. Here is a simple and true history of the increase and decrease of quail in our State and the causes therefor, for the past twenty-nine years.