Rabbit hunting with dogs was as much his passion as sitting out squirrels was mine. And this brings me to another member of the same Sumter County hunting club.

Jimmy Riggins was a rakish gent who wore a Crocodile Dundee hat long before they were cool. He supplied the beagles and wrangled the invitations from a host of landowners who never once flinched at the culling of 30 or 40 rabbits off their land once deer season had ended. As a rule, hunting cottontails and swamp rabbits prior to deer season wasn't done because of the likelihood of "wolves."

I'm not talking about wild canines. "Wolves," in this sense, are those big, ugly larvae of the botfly found under the skin of rabbits and squirrels prior to the first hard frost. Though it was safe to eat the meat, some folks would cut out the portion touched by wolves, while most everyone I knew wouldn't eat the affected game. Thus they didn't start hunting until it got cold.

About the time Daddy decided he could no longer afford to keep and feed a pack of beagles, partly because he was spending $200 to $250 a year to be a member of McGowen Hunting Club, he fell in with "Riggins," whose hunts were legendary. If I'd known what I was missing, I'd have given my father no peace until he let me tag along.

Now, I'd gone on some rabbit hunts. These were close-to-home affairs, and by a good day's end, we might've had three or four rabbits to skin. After a Riggins hunt, they'd lay out more rabbits than a tailgate could hold.

I didn't fall in love with rabbit hunting until many years later, when I was invited to White Oak Plantation near Tuskegee. The owner, Robert Pitman, had decided to add yet another entrée to his already full menu of hunting opportunities. To pull it off, he arranged to have several packs of deer-proof beagles, and he sold out of spots long before the first hunt kicked off.

I made several of those hunts over the years and the excursions were always high on my crowded list of must-dos.

Actually, Alabama's 30 or so wildlife management areas and four national forests offer perfect for hunting rabbits, and you get two weeks before the opening of archery deer season and the entire month of February to have the tracts mostly to yourself. In addition, hunting is allowed on some U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, national wildlife refuges and several small tracts purchased in recent years by the Forever Wild Land Trust.

QUAIL
I wish I could offer a glowing report on the status of the bobwhites in Alabama, but I can't. In fact, the wild birds are disappearing from the landscape at an alarming rate. Quail Forever, the conservation organization dedicated to the restoration of quail habitat and the comeback of America's former favorite among upland game birds, paints a dim picture.

Last fall, the organization pointed out, the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies -- whose members manage wildlife in 16 states -- suggested that the bird could disappear from some areas of the South by 2010. That glum outlook is supported by the National Audubon Society, which recently announced that the population of the northern bobwhite quail has declined by 82 percent over the last 40 years. Quail numbers have dropped from an estimated 31 million in 1967 to just 5.5 million today.

According to Quail Forever, if quail habitat continues to disappear, so will the quail. Quail and quail hunting are in dire straights.

Biologists tend to agree that the No. 1 reason for the drastic reduction in our quail population is the loss of suitable habitat. With no other plans on the table, wildlife agencies are simply urging landowners to manipulate their properties and offer more food and the right kind of cover for quail.

"In recent years managers and researchers have revisited sound bobwhite biology and have made new discoveries about bobwhite behavior, ecology and management," Stewart said. "Individuals who are applying this knowledge are currently experiencing unprecedented bobwhite management successes and population highs.