64 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
and then they proceed but a short distance before alight- 
ing, and commence to run again. If the ground per- 
mits the covey to be followed rapidly and continuously, 
and the birds find that running is of no avail, they can 
then be flushed, and they fly swiftly, generally on a level 
about six or eight feet above the ground, but in a curving 
direction, not straight forward for any distance, and if 
the covey becomes well scattered the birds will some- 
times lie well and flush singly; but this is exceptional, 
and a state of affairs only arrived at by a long, persistent, 
and fatiguing pursuit. I imagine that most of the birds 
that are obtained by the gun are shot upon the ground. 
Very unsportmanlike, but after one learns their tricks 
and their manners the natural feeling of denunciation 
against such a practice that is possessed by all lovers of 
dog and gun, somehow does not seem to be so easily 
aroused in those who have followed these birds for food 
or recreation. If, however, the sportsman fails to obtain 
either of these, there is one thing he does get without 
stint—exercise. 
Gambel’s Partridge bears well great extremes of tem- 
perature and is apparently quite as comfortable where 
the thermometer indicates 1oo° in the shade, as in 
the keen, rarefied air that blows around the mountain 
tops at an elevation of 8000 or gooo feet. When the 
heat is as great as that mentioned above, this species 
seeks the bottoms of the cafions, or the banks of the 
creeks, and keeps in the shade of the dense thickets 
usually found in such situations, or, as is frequently 
the case, perches in the trees. This custom is habitual 
to it, for it is quite an arboreal bird, taking refuge 
on the branches of trees or bushes if suddenly 
alarmed, or when the members of a flock become scat- 
tered after having been compelled to take wing. The 
