Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, 
                                University Museum, 
                                       Oxford. 
 
 
                                          2 October, 1931. 
 
 
 
Aldo Leopold Esq. 
404 University Avenue 
Jational Bank Euilding 
14adis on 
Wiisconsin 
U.S .A. 
 
 
 
 
 
Dear Leopold, 
 
             Thank you for the notice from Outdoor America. I 
 find that it will take me about 3 months to o td 
 digest properly your Game Survey. I am tuerefore offering you 
 an instalment of comments on the first two sections on quail 
 and rabbit. 
 
     1).   The question of density iaterests me greatly, as I 
 am collecting data on weights per acre of different animals. 
 The following idea occurred to me:- taking quail ground with 
 an average of 1 quail per acre (saturation point) you have 
 6 oz. of quail per acre, but your quails feed in coveys, that 
 is, taere is sometning like 5 to 7 lbs. of quail feeding on 
 an acre, or actually far less than an acre, at any moment. For 
 the covey to keep together and feed the available food must be 
 at a much higher level tuan would be necessary if your 15 'irds 
 fed independently on 15 different acres. 1 
 
           The idea here is tiat the covey habit will tend to 
 confine tne s,.ecies for feeding purposes to comparatively rich 
 patches. Tue taeoretical consequence of this idea, if there 
 is anything in it, would be fewer quail than the country could 
 support in reality, were it not for the flocking habit. The 
 practical consequences to game management would be the import- 
 ance of supplying rich. food patches, i.e. a concentration of 
 food pa±ainH resources rather than merely a Qeneral higher 
 level. I can dimly see that tiis idea may have some relation 
 
 
 
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