534 GAME BIHDS OF CALIFOENIA 



The California Quail (including the races closely related to it) has 

 almost every feature that is desirable in a game bird. It displays 

 exceptional skill in bafifling the hunter, and its light-colored flesh is of 

 fine flavor: Easterners often criticise our bird because it does not lie 

 ^^•ell to dogs ; but when they once become acquainted with the western 

 method of hunting the quail, they pronounce our bird superior to their 

 own Bobwhite. Sometimes a dog is used, but the experienced hunter 

 in California is able to pursue a flock successfully without such 

 assistance. 



Van Dyke (1892, p. 486), one of the most experienced hunters 

 of upland game in the state, describes a quail hunt in terms some- 

 what as follows : At your first advance into the place where the quail 

 last settled in confusion, a dozen or more rise in front of you and 

 as many more on each side anj^where from five to fifty yards away. 

 They burst from the brush with rapid flight and whizzing wing, 

 most of them with a sharp, clear, pit, pit, pit, which apprizes their 

 comrades of the danger and the course of escape taken. Some dart 

 straight away in a dark blue line, making none too plain a mark 

 against the dull background of brush, and vanish in handsome style 

 unless you are very quick with the gun. Others wheel off on either 

 side, the scaling of their breasts showing in the sunlight as they turn, 

 and making an altogether beautiful mark as they mount above the 

 skyline. Some swing about and pass almost over your head, so that 

 you can plainly see the black and white around their heads and 

 throats, and the cinnamon shading of their under surfaces. 



In the days when the Valley Quail was plentiful far beyond its 

 condition today, it was a common bird on the markets and could be 

 obtained at practically every hotel and restaurant. Records show 

 that during the season 1895-96 as many as 70,370 quail (mostly Valley 

 Quail) were sold on the markets of San Francisco and Los Angeles; 

 while an earlier report states that full 100,000 were disposed of in 

 a single year in the markets of San Francisco. W. T. Martin of 

 Pomona states that in 1881-84 he and a partner hunted Valley Quail 

 in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties for the San Francisco 

 markets. Eight to fourteen dozen were secured daily, and in the 

 fall of 1883 the two men secured 300 dozen in seventeen days. Martin 

 himself secured 114 birds in one day's hunt. In 1881 and 1882 

 over 32,000 dozen quail were shipped to San Francisco from Los 

 Angeles and San Bernardino counties, and brought to the hunters 

 engaged in the business one dollar a dozen. In those days restaurants 

 charged thirty cents for quail-on-toast. By 1885 hunting had become 

 unprofitable because of the reduction in the numbers of quail. 



A. E. Skelton, of El Portal, Mariposa County, tells us (MS) that 

 years ago when he was hunting for the market in the vicinity of 



