566 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



MALIC TKXAS BOH WHITK 



This bird is the western quail which most closely resembles our eastern 

 siJecies. It is found no further westward than the southeastern corner of 

 New Mexico, 



Passenger Pisjeon and the Labrador or Pied Duck, de- 

 scribed in the l''ebriiary (1917) issue of American 

 Forestry, wlieie tijjjures of both s])ecies are pre- 

 sented. 



More or less suddenly it will be observed that a cer- 

 tain species, or several s])ecies of birds are becoming 

 less and less abundant every year, be the cause what it 

 may — known or unknown. Musetniis and collectors then 

 get bus_\', and the very movement ])Ut on foot to satisfy 

 the demands of such soiu'ces materially increases the 

 danger of the extinction of the s])ecies sought. 



This critical stage seems to now have been reached 

 in the case of all the beartiful ^jjccies of i|uails found 

 throughout the Pacific Coast region. I can well remem- 

 ber when, fifty years ago, those returning from that 

 region, in thu early days of California, reported the 

 presence of several of the s])ecies here shown in liie illus- 

 trations in vast bevies, often numbering several thousand 

 each, such hosts occurring where\er the n;iturt of the 

 country suited them. ,\t tlie time to which reference 

 is made, millions of these birds were to be found in 

 California alone, and ihey were e(|i!allv ;ibniidant in 

 adjacent regions. bSut the gunners and hunters got after 

 them in ever-increasing numbers, with constantly im- 

 ])rove(l weapons, until the usual result was brought abou; : 

 so that, at the ])resent time, the various forms being con- 

 sidered are, with ever-increasing rapidity, confronted 

 with the same fate that man had in store for the \\ ild 

 Passenger Pigeon and the Cjreat .\uk. .Already the prices 

 for the skins of these several species are being advanced 

 in the market for museums and cnllcclors; and this, as 

 pointed out above, is a very ominous sign for these most 

 beautiful members of their kind in any part of the world. 



There is but one remedy for this very undesirable state 

 of alTairs: to pass laws against the shooting, trapping or 

 otherwise destroying any of these species for a long 

 period of years. 



()f course, s]jortsmen will [jrolcst vigorously against 

 any such legislation ; but the only way to save the quails 

 ot the Pacific Coast is to stop shooting them. The birds 

 in mind are all generically represented in this article. 

 ( )ur liob-whites do not extend so far to the westward. 

 To be sure, the Masked Bob-white occurs on the south- 

 ern border of Arizona ; but the bird that most closely 

 resembles our eastern species is the Texas P.ob-white, 

 and that form is found no farther westward than the 

 southeastern corner of New- Mexico. 



In so far as our own avifauna is concerned, there are, 

 beside the Bob-whites, four entirely distinct genera of 

 these western quails, and each genus contains, in addition 

 to its type species, from one to three subspecies, there 

 being about nine forms in all. In a brief article like the 

 present one, it will be quite out of the question to give 

 the descriptions, much less the ranges, where all of these 

 truly beautiful birds are to be found at this writing; 

 their photographs must stand for their appearances, and 

 their habitats are not essential; the main object of this 

 article being a jjlea to save them from certain and utter 

 extermination. 



Apart from Mearns' Quail 1 have had living speci- 

 mens of all these birds in my possession for the pur- 

 ]joses of photography, while the figure of the first-men- 

 tioned species was made from a mounted specimen in 

 the collection of the Cnited States National Museum. 



THE BLUE QUAIL 



This hird is also called the Chtstnnt-henied Scaled Q\iail. It has a noticeably 

 slaty blue plumage. 



