GATHER ‘round the rocking chair, all you kids under the age of 35, and we’ll tell you the story of a small bird in Arkansas that used to make summers special around here.

As the sun went down of an evening, with grandparents rocking on the porch and Daddy piddling in the garden, the little kids might make a game of calling bobwhite quail. It was as much a part foplk summer evenings in Arkansas as Mama’s griping about what she’s ever going to do with all this fresh squash. If one of the kids was really good at mocking the whistle-bobWHITE, bobWHITE-he or she could even call a bird up to the yard on occasion. And maybe even see it. Hearing the bird was common, seeing it not as much.

Maybe it’s just imperfect memory, or maybe kids in our day were too busy in the midday hours to sit still for long, but the quail seemed to come alive in the hour before dusk. Or it was their job to wake up the fireflies. But as we remember, supper came first, sitting on the porch listening and calling to bobwhites next, then the fireflies, then bedtime. Everything in its order. And maybe Mama would even force baths on us in between the last two, time permitting.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard the call of a bobwhite quail. If you live in the country-way out in the country-maybe you’re lucky enough to have a covey around your house. But the population of bobwhite quail has definitely fallen-plummeted-over the last two, three decades. No doubt about that. Does Game and Fish even set dates for hunting them any more? And if so, (1) where would you go to shoot one, and (2) what would you do with just one little critter in the bag? You could hardly make a soup out of one (1) quail.

Comes now news out of Texas A&M, and it has nothing to do with sports, so you needn’t frown, Mr. and Mrs. Razorback Fanatic. It seems researchers at A&M have sequenced the genome of the bobwhite quail.

And just what does that mean? We’re glad you asked, and are gratified to answer your question: We don’t know. We don’t even know enough about it to tell you what we don’t know. But word has it that there are DNA doohickeys and genetic thingamabobs in an animal’s genome, and Texas A&M has . . . well, figured out the bobwhite’s.

So . . .

Word has it that this project will allow for more studies on the bird’s innards. And the impact of toxins on those innards. Not to mention the effect of disease, reproductive problems and all kind of other biological data. Think of it as akin to trying to find out what smells in the garage, so you take everything out into the yard, organize everything into piles and baskets . . . and take inventory. Then the problem becomes obvious. You hope. And maybe other problems are solved before they become crises, or even arise. (Is that a leak coming from the freezer?)

Dispatches say the A&M bobwhite project took hundreds of computers, countless man hours, an impressively long list of biologists, and two whole years to complete.

Here’s hoping they come up with some explanation about why the quail population has wasted away up here. We miss those bobWHITE calls.

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The first thing a lot of people would say, and do in the comment section of internet news articles on the subject, is that the quail’s habitat has been dramatically reduced in size and quality. But that wouldn’t seem to explain all that much. Deteriorating habitat? We could take you to any number of small farms around Arkansas, and they don’t look much different today than they did 40 years ago. The only obvious difference might be a dish on top of the house, and a different model truck in the driveway. But still, no bobwhite.

Something’s going on here, and has been for years. We’d like to know just what. Which is why some of us will be rooting for Texas A&M the next few years.

Or at least its biology department.

Go Aggies.

Editorial, Pages 12 on 03/17/2014