MEARNS'S QUAIL 89 



than any other. As an example I recall one that squatted on a log near the 

 trail our pack train was following, and so closely did the colors of his back 

 and sides harmonize with his surroundings that 12 or 15 pack mules and horse- 

 men passed by him without seeing him or disturbing his equanimity in the 

 least. He seemed so completely petrified by astonishment at the novel sight 

 as to be incapable of motion, and he was so close to vis that one might have 

 touched him with a riding whip. While the bird was no doubt actuated to some 

 extent by curiosity, be depended for his safety, I am sure, upon the nice way 

 in which his plumage matched his surroundings and upon his absolute immo- 

 bility. No one saw the bird but myself, and when the train had passed I had 

 to almost poke him off his perch before he consented to fly. Whoso calls this 

 the " Fool Quail " writes himself down a bigger fool than the bird, who has 

 been taught his lesson of concealment by Mother Nature herself. 



Louis A. Fuertes (1903) thus describes his first impression of a 

 Mearns's quail: 



I awoke in the cool, just before sun-up, and was lazily dressing, half out of 

 my sleeping bag, when my sleepy eye caught a slight motion in the grass about 

 20 feet away. I looked and became aware that I was staring at my first 

 Mearns quail. Even as I took in the fact, he apparently framed up his ideas 

 as to his vision, and telling himself in a quiet little quail voice that it were 

 perhaps as well to move on and look from a safer distance, he slimmed down 

 his trim little form and ran a few steps. Meanwhile I was clumsily trying to 

 get my gun cut from under my sleeping bag, where I had put it to keep it out 

 of the dew. The quail, getting wiser every second, doubled his trot, and with 

 head erect and body trim ran like a plover for a few yards through the short 

 desert grass, and with a true quail f-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r burst into flight and dropped 

 into the thick brush across the arroyo. The most noticeable thing about him 

 as I watched him running was the curious use of his queer little crest. Instead 

 of elevating it as the mountain quail does his, he raised his painted head on slim 

 neck and spread his flowing crest laterally, till it looked like half a mushroom, 

 giving him the most curious appearance imaginable. When he flew I marked 

 him clown carefully, hastily drew my boots half on, grabbed my gun and 

 stumped after him with all speed. I got to his point within a short time, but 

 thrash and kick around as I might, I never succeeded in making him flush a 

 second time. 



Mr. Willard writes to me : 



One morning, as I arrived in front of our store in Tombstone, I found a 

 flock of a dozen or more of these birds running around in the street. Most of 

 them flew up onto the roof of the building, but one male ran into the doorway, 

 stuck his head down into a corner, and waited for me to pick him up. 



Voice. — Major Bendire (1892) quotes Mr. Todd as saying: 



When scared they utter a kind of whistling sound, a curious combination 

 between a chuckle and a whistle, and while flying they make a noise a good 

 deal like a Prairie Hen, though softer and less loud, like " chuc-chuc-chuc," 

 rapidly repeated. 



H. S. Swarth (1909) writes: 



Their call consists of a series of notes slowly descending the scale, and ending 

 in a long, low trill, the whole being ventriloquial in effect and most difficult to 



