They moved into Missouri over the past decade and are regulated along with the native mourning dove. We can shoot them in season and must count them toward our 15 dove limit. I generally have a pair nesting in my yard, and we see them in the small town we live near. I've never encountered one afield as they seem to like hanging around dwellings. I guess I could shoot my "yard birds," but I'm not sure I need the food that badly. Right now, they are kind of a trophy bird with me, but the State deems them invasive.
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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