We had about accepted this conclusion, as it agreed with our own results.
Then 
on my last trip to South Carolina I went over a large number of crops of
quail, 
and found many well filled with this Lespedeza. Apparently they are acquiring

a taste for it. le ofther find that it takes the birds of a natural area

about three years to acquire a taste for a new feed, even though the feeds

offered may rank at the top in some other district only a few miles distant.

oxamiles,Fla. Beggarweed,Sesbania,BuckwheatRice and a great many others.Now

in our practical work we plant these feeds very well distributed over a preserve,

but in very small quantity at first,gradually increasing the quantity as
the 
bir'ds learn to eat the new offering. If natural feeds are very scarce we
may 
get quick results with the new offering;if a wide variety of natural feeds
are 
very abundant,we may make very slow progress with anything new which we 
may offer. 
This past year Komarek tested,by the best and most Ofool proof" technique

we could think ofa wide variety of seeds suspected of being toxic. We used

force feeding of the suspected seeds on a bird,and force fed a control with

seeds known to be of outstanding value. Certain of the tested seeds appeared
to 
be toxic by this method. Yet we fing the same seeds ocassionally eaten by
wild 
quail in perfect health and condition.We have come to lack confidence in
this 
experimental procedure and will not publish the results~though this was 
the object of the research in the first place. 
,l. of our practical work points to the fact that the great majority of 
quail foods are strictly seasonal. Gallberries seem to be eaten in quantity
by 
quail (and many other birds?) only in February,though they have been on the

bushes for weeks.Many legumes are not eaten in quantity till they have been

on the ground and exposed to the elements for weeks or months. Many grass
seeds 
are eaten largely in the "milky 0 stage and for a few weeks thereafter,and

largely ignored for the remainder of the year,though they remain wholesome

and fully available for months following their period of use (as is proven
by 
wholesale volunteering later). Seeds ignored for weeks become first in 
importance for the birds at other periods. And so it goes. So we plant and

observekill birds under known conditions and examine themobserve their 
actions afield,and gradyally gets leads for the large scale and practical

plantings.There may be short cuts, but we fail to find them. 
As to Sumac. Why call sumac of "low-palatibility". The fruits of
Dwarf 
Sumac (3chmaltzia copallina) are the only food we have found in Bobwhite
for 
each and every month of they    ;the item ocursed in 569 birds of 1,659 
examined during the Cooperative Quail Investigation,and I have personally
found 
crops half filled. Does it serve as a condiment? How about the deer browsing

on over browsed spots? Maybe the animal Industry fellows are giving the answer

through their chemical analysis of forage periodically ct and renewed,as
against 
the same plants when allowed to develop normally and going to seed. Apparently

they are finding very different food values. I guess the real explantation

must be made by the chemistoBut as a guide to practical quail management
we have 
been forced right back where we started;a study of the bird in relation to
its 
environment,checked constantly by labratory work on crops gathered under
known 
conditions. I am beginning to despair of the experimental approach with captive

birds,man stored seedsand so forth. I just go into this to such great lengh

because we have *been through the mill",or are in the milland anyone
taking up 
this work might go all over the same ground again thinking it might give
the 
answer,which I am convinced it wont . And maybe the chemist will have to
be 
associated with the practical man of long experience to keep his feet on
the 
ground;it looks so in related fields* 
Now just a suggestion. If one must experiment in this field,he had better