PERDICID.E — THE PARTRIDGES. 



477 



and when all was still again were recalled by the mother with a duch, much 

 like the call of the common Hen. The party frecLueutly saw coveys and 

 broods of these birds, the 

 young of which were about 

 half grown, until they readied 

 the plains of Pit Eiver. 

 None were seen in the Kla- 

 math Lake basin, tlie country 

 being too bare and tiat. Tliey 



Oreortyx pictits. 



were again met with among 

 the hills bordering the Wil- 

 lamette Valley, and were 

 found from the Columbia, al- 

 most uninterruptedly through 

 the Siskiyou, Calapooza, and 

 Trinity Mountains to Cali- 

 fornia. They are favorite pets witli the miners, by whom they are frequently 

 kept in confinement, and not unfrequently command a high price. Their 

 flesh is said to be white and excellent, and fully equal to that of any of the 

 family. 



According to Dr. Cooper, this Quail is very rare in Washington Territory, a 

 few small coveys having been met with about Vancouver, as he was informed 

 by the officers in the garrison. He never succeeded in finding any, though 

 he hunted for them several times with a dog. They became quite common 

 south of the Columbia, towards the prairies of the Willamette. He inquired 

 especially for them in other parts of the Territory, but never heard of them. 

 In California, south of San Francisco, this bird is said to be a rare curiosity 

 to the market-hunters, one or two sometimes occurring among flocks of the 

 California Quail. It is known to them as the Mountain Quail. Dr. 

 Suckley states that the birds in the Willamette Valley were introduced there, 

 and that they are now multiplying rapidly upon the prairies back of Fort 

 Vancouver. With a very little care it is thought the whole of the Territory 

 may become well stocked with them, as the absence of foxes west of the 

 Cascade Mountains and the mild open winters are favorable for their in- 

 crease. 



Dr. Heermann found tlie birds of this species wild and difficult to procure, 

 flying and scattering at the least symptom of danger, and again calling each 

 other together with a note expressive of great solicitude, much resembling 

 that of a Hen-Turkey gathering her brood around her. During the survey 

 he observed these birds only once, and then but for a few minutes, as they 

 were passing through a deep canon leading down to Elizabeth Lake. They 

 w^ere seen by the hunters on the mountains surrounding Tejon Valley ; but 

 though he went several times in search of them, he obtained none. 



Mr. Eidgway met with the Mountain Quail on the foot-hills of the Sierra 



