60 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [12:2— Feb., 1916 



The specimen shown in Fig. g has a number of common names, 

 as the Red Squirrel, the Chickaree, and so on; but to scientists it 

 is the Sciurus htidsonicus loquax, that is, it is the subspecies loquax 

 of the type species 5. h. hudsonicus. The one here shown was 

 captured in northern Virginia, and brought to me a few hours 

 afterwards; I had the time of my life getting the picture of him 

 which illustrates this article. At first he was as cross as a crab, 

 and as wild as you make them. But, shutting myself up with him 

 in a small room, and hanging a few yards of an old grape-vine across 

 it, I started in on the- task in a manner that was sure to lead to 

 success in due time. After a while I convinced that wild little 

 vixen of the woods that it was not my intention to murder him in 

 cold blood, and in a few hours he became more gentle, then more 

 and more fearless, as I would catch him with my gloved hands, 

 gently letting him go again, after he had nearly exhausted himself 

 trying to bite through my thick gloves. Finally, he became very 

 thirsty and hungry, so I coaxed him out on the swinging grape-vine 

 with the promise of a nice, fat hickory nut and a sip of cool water. 

 Eventually, this was too much for him; he surrendered, and 

 Figure g was my reward. And his? The woods of his native 

 haunts again, with all that they mean to a little red squirrel. 



Not long afterwards, in that very same little room, my patience 

 was tested to the limit during my attempts to obtain some equally 

 good pictures of two or three — three I believe there were — varieties 

 or species of the beautiful quails that are found in California and 

 other western States. One of the most attractive of these is repro- 

 duced in Fig. io of this instalment of our nature series — a graceful, 

 gentle little partridge of great beauty of plumage. Its peculiar 

 independent little crest or plume curls forwards as shown, and it is 

 composed of several glossy black feathers. White stripes occur on 

 the head as shown; the back is ashy, glossed with olive-brown, 

 and the breast is of a fine slaty-blue. This is the "quail" of Cali- 

 fornia, and known as the California Quail, its scientific name being 

 Lophortyx c. californica. Local sportsmen and others call it the 

 Valley Quail in contradistinction to the Mountain Quail, which 

 is an even more handsome species, found in some parts of the same 

 region in the moimtainous districts. These birds, be it said to the 

 shame of California, are slowly but surely being exterminated by 

 the improved small arms now in use by the modern sportsmen. 

 Thousands of people ask this question every day: "What is 



