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Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) populations have been declining at an alarming rate during the past 3 decades. Every broadscale population index of bobwhites indicates a significant downward trend. Trends from Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data (Fig. 1, Table 1) and Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data (Droege and Sauer 1990) indicate that bobwhite populations have undergone significant declines in 77% of the states within their geographic range. Especially troubling is the fact that the most precipitous declines in bobwhite populations have occurred in the southern region of the United States (Fig. 1B, Table 1). The slope from the regression analysis of the southeastern region CBC data (Fig. 1B) is steeper than the slope from the midwest and northern region data pooled (P < 0.05, 2-sample F-test; Fig. IC). This is quite unexpected because the southern U.S. is the center of the bobwhite's geographic range (Rosene 1969, Gutierrez et al. 1983) and has historically been associated with good quail habitat management and abundant quail populations. If the current population trend continues, we are likely to lose bobwhite hunting opportunities across the majority of this quail's geographic range by the year 2000. Projections using regression analyses of data from Fig. 1 indicate that the CBC index (number of quail detected per hour of observer effort) for the bobwhite will effectively be 0 by the year 2005. The irony of this projection is nearly unfathomable because effective habitat management techniques for bobwhites have been known for over half a century (Stoddard 1931). Nevertheless, until a broad-scale, well-coordinated effort in education, management, and research is made by the agriculture, forestry, and wildlife communities, bobwhite populations most likely will continue to decline and the tradition of hunting wild bobwhite coveys will largely be a thing of the past. Therefore, my purpose in this paper is to outline a research and management manifesto for the northern bobwhite in the 1990's. My objectives are to (1) describe the probable causes for the northern bobwhite population decline, (2) outline the research agenda that will be required to solve northern bobwhite habitat management problems, and (3) describe some strategies that extension services and private interest groups can use to educate the public about bobwhite habitat and population management techniques.