that they would grow tame and stay around the 
camp. So planning she fell asleep. 
Day was breaking when the birds in the thorn 
tree awoke. Lifting his long plumed crest, the 
male looked at his family perched around and 
above him. A little later he flew to the ground. 
The others joined him and in a few minutes the 
covey was making its way along the canyon in 
search of breakfast. 
In a loose flock they traveled on over the sand 
and rocks, in and out among scattered growths 
of cat-claw, creosote, and thorny cactus. As 
they went they picked up a seed here, or caught 
an insect there, just as they had been doing 
every day for many weeks past. 
Great dangers beset the lives of birds whose 
time is passed on the eround, for not only are 
they the prey of enemies that fly overhead, 
but at any moment some swift messenger of 
death may pounce upon them from behind a 
bush or rock. A complete history of any quail 
family, therefore, would be largely a statement 
of dates when the different members were killed 
or carried away by some ravaging creature. 
195 
