Auk 
204             PHILLIPS, New England Bob-white.         April, 
THE OLD NEW ENGLAND BOB-WHITE. 
BY JOHN C. PHILLIPS. 
Plate XVI. 
IT has long been remarked both by ornithologists and sportsmen 
that the Bob-whites of New England and the north central states 
were somewhat larger than those of the Mid-Atlantic states. The 
name Colinus virginianus was given to the bird by Linnous, based 
entirely on Catesby's material, so that the type locality may be 
fairly placed at South Carolina, probably near the Georgia line, 
for Catesby's bird collecting was done on the Savanah River. 
Catesby's plate represents a distinctly dark bird. 
The question of a northern form is however somewhat compli- 
cated by the zealous efforts of sportsmen in transplanting Bob- 
whites from more favored to less favored regions, a process which 
has resulted in the entire or partial replacement of the native stock 
over most of its northeastward extension. It is interesting to note 
here that the subject of quail transplants was not thoroughly aired 
in sportsman's journals before the late seventies. By 1880 quail 
were advertised from various southern localities, Tennessee, 
Indian Territory, Texas, etc., at the extremely low figure of $2.00 a 
dozen. Between 1880 and 1885 there was great activity along this 
line and large transplants were effected in southern Vermont and 
in Massachusetts and probably over the whole of southern New 
England. Many references to this can be found in the files of 
'Forest and Stream' between 1876 and 1885. 
It appears however that the traffic in live quail existed a good 
while before this period for I have a record given to me by Mr. G. 
A. Peabody, of Danvers, for March, 1870, at which time 184 birds 
were let out in Essex Co., Mass. They were sent from Greens- 
boro, N. C., but whether actually trapped there is of course un- 
certain. Mr. Peabody himself kept a few quail in a pen in the 
sixties and liberated a few at Danvers, Mass. He is certain that 
other sportsmen were doing the same thing about this time and he 
says that the planting was done with the utmost secrecy, which 
may account for the late appearance of reports of these transplants 
in the journals of the time. It is a fact that on Cape Cod quail 
were planted very early, for Mr. Peabody informs me that Mr.