10 
 
 
   This simply means that shooting 
 over a dog is likely to bring ten or 
 eleven additional birds to bag for each 
 50 hours of hunting. In some parts of 
 the state-notably the Ozarks, where 
 cover is dense-the relative success 
 with dogs is even greater. 
   One would ordinarily suppose that as 
 the season progressed and the birds 
 became more wary and scattered, fewer 
 birds would be bagged per hour than 
 at the beginning of the season. Where 
 birds are scarce, this is true; but it 
 was not conspicuously the case in Mis- 
 souri in 1938. Table 2 shows the hours 
 hunted and birds killed in the entire 
 state during the successive weeks of 
 the 1938 season: 
    TABLE 2. HUNTING DURING SU 
           Hours           % of 
 Week     hunted *      total hours 
                         hunted * 
   1      5,445.5         22.0 
   2      3,158.5         12.8 
   3      3,191.          12.9 
   4      2,909.          11.8 
   5      2,932.          11.9 
   6      2,815.          11.4 
   7      2,290.           9.3 
   8**    1,966.           8.0 
 Entire 
 Season    24707         100.1 
     * With dogs; these figures used for unifo 
     ** 3 days only (December 29-31.) 
  There IS a generally downward trend 
of hunting success, measured in birds 
killed per hour, during the season, 
but it is slight.  This we regard as 
evidence of a large and healthy pop- 
ulation of birds. A comparison of the 
two "percentage" columns in Table 2 
shows that the relation of birds killed 
to hours hunted remained almost the 
same throughout the 1938 season. 
  When    similar  calculations  were 
made for the eight Regions, however, 
an interesting  result appeared:    In 
the Northwestern and Western Prairies 
the hunting success fell off in suc- 
cessive weeks noticeably more than 
in the rest of the state. We consider 
this as added evidence that the quail 
population on the Prairie is sparser 
and in less healthy condition than the 
quail i' other Regions. 
  Table 2 also shows that the largest 
number of hunters took the field dur- 
ing the first week; after that, there 
was a gradual decline uuntil a last- 
minute "spurt" at the close of the 
season.   Thus the heaviest hunting 
pressrre was early in the season; tak- 
ing  the birds killed over dogs as 
typical, 22.4% were killed during the 
first week and 48.1% during Novem- 
ber (which included the first three 
weeks of a 7½-week season.) 
  When these figures were computed 
for the eight Regions, there appeared 
still more evidence of the scarcity of 
quail in the Western and Northiwest- 
ern Prairies (Table 3): 
 
 
   The largest proportion of -the birds 
 were killed early in the season in the 
 two Prairie Regions. It will be recalled 
 that in these same Regions the hunt- 
 ing success for the season was least 
 and the decline in hunting success dur- 
 ing the season was greatest. All these 
 point to the fact that, as regards 
 quail, the Prairies are the least pro- 
 ductive Regions in Missouri. 
   The ratio of cocks to hens is fairly 
 shown by the 37,627 quail whose sex 
 was recorded in 1938. Our cooperators 
 killed 19,944 cocks and 17,6883 hens- 
 a 12.8% surplus of males (112.8 cocks 
 to 100 hens.) There were more cocks 
 than hens in every Region, the surplus 
 varying from 5.1% to 21.3%. 
   Herbert L. Stoddard, whose book 
 
CICESSIVE WEEKS, 1938 SEASON. 
Birds            % of       Birds killed 
killed         total birds  per hour * 
                 killed * 
8,033           22.4          1.48 
4,617           12.8          1.46 
4,631            12ý9         1.45 
4,226            11.8         1.46 
4,178           11.6          1.42 
4,145           11.5          1.47 
3,392            9.4          1.48 
2,718            7.6          1.38 
 
 
100.0 
 
 
1.45 
 
 
"The Bobwhite Quail" is the Bible of 
all quail investigators, found that in 
the southeastern   United  States be- 
tween 1924 and 1929 the surplus of 
males varied between 77% and 20%. 
   "In very few cases did the hens 
 equal or exceed the cocks in number, 
 and this was the case early in the 
 season only. On the other hand, ratios 
 as high as 130 to 100 were occasionally 
 indicated in small series late in the 
 season."  He found that in general 
 there was a "winter sex ratio of ap- 
 proximately 115 cocks to 100 hens over 
 much of the southeastern quail terri- 
 tory." 
 Stoddard noticed a small but steady 
 decrease in the proportion of hens as 
 the season progressed, and he com- 
 mented  on   "the strong  probability 
   TABLE 3. EARLY KILL IN THE 
      REGION 
N orthw estern Prairie ......................... 
W estern Prairie .............. . ... ....... 
Northeastern  Riverbreaks  .............. 
W estern  Ozark  Border ........................... 
Northern and Eastern Ozark Border-- 
M ississippi Low land .... .......................... 
O za rk P lateau ................................ . ... . 
N orthern Riverbreaks -------------------------------- 
 
that the hens have a decidedly shorter 
'life expectation' when living under 
natural conditions than do the cocks." 
He thought that the hens might be 
less quick in dodging and therefore 
easier marks for both hunters and pre- 
dators. 
 
 
   Missouri Wildlife-June, 1939 
 
   The 1938 figures from Missouri show 
this same trend; as Table 4 shows, the 
percent of hens killed decreased on 
the whole gradually but steadily dur- 
ing the season: 
               Table 4. 
 Percent of Hens Killed in Successive 
             Weeks, 1938. 
 
 
% of hen-, 
in the kill 
   47.37 
   47.30 
   47.08 
   46.96 
   46.65 
   46.95 
   46.06 
   46.95 
 
 
     Though definite predictions cannot 
   be made at this time, it is probable 
   that some relation will be found be- 
   tween scarcity of hens and either de- 
   pleted populations or the presence of 
   unfavorable conditions on the range. 
   There are apt to be more hens (hence 
   a smaller surplus of cocks) on good 
   range or early in the season, nd fewer 
   hens on poor range or late in the sea- 
   son. For this and several other rea- 
   sons, it is important to record the sex 
   ratio every year, as this is apparently 
   one of the "symptoms" which indicates 
   the healthy or unrealthy state of the 
   quail population. 
 
         ELECT E. E. PUGH, Jr. 
     Edward E. Pugh, Jr., Kansas City 
   attorney and widely known bird dog 
   owner and field trials enthusiast, was 
   elected president of the Jackson County 
   Chapter of the Federation at its an- 
   nual meeting May 8. He succeeds Dr. 
   Irwin S. Brown, under whose leader- 
   ship the   Jackson  County   Chapter 
   launched  Missouri Wildlife for the 
   statewide membership. 
     N. F. Noland, grain man and a di- 
  rector of the State Federation, was 
  elected vice-president. 
    R. W. (Bob) Lord was reelected sec- 
  retary-treasurer, the position he has 
  had since inception of the Jackson 
  County Chapter. 
VARIOUS REGIONS OF MISSOURI. 
                    % killed   % killed 
                    first week November 
------------------------- ---------  2 7 .1  5 3 .1 
---  -----------------------   - -- 2 6 .7  5 2 .2 
--------- . .. . .........2 4 .0  4 9 .7 
------ -.-.-.. --.-. ---------------   2 3 .2   5 0 .4 
    -               21.6          47.5 
----------------------------------. 2 1 .4   4 7 .5 
-------------------------....------  2 1 .4   4 6 .0 
----  ------------------.-. ----.. -... 1 8 .0   4 3 .8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    41otelml      q fair St.Louis 
    N     Y PARK I N         GG AN A R A G I $ 
 
 
Week 
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
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  8 (3 days only) 
 
 
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