THE PARTRIDGES. 15 



common hen. The party frequently saw cover's and broods 

 of these birds, the young of which were about half grown, 

 until they reat'hed the plains of Pit River. ISTone were 

 seen in the Klamath Lake basin, the country being too 

 bare and tlat. They were again met with among the hills 

 bordering the Willamette Valley, and were found from the 

 Columbia, almost uninterruptedly through the Siskiyou, 

 Oalapooza, and Trinity Mountain^, to California. They are 

 favorite pets with the miners, b}^ 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 Wash- 

 ington 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 curiosit}^ 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 prai- 

 ries back of Fort Vancouver. AVith a very little care it is 

 thought the whole of the Territory niay become well stocked 

 with them, as the absence of foxes west of the Cascade 

 Mountains and the mild open winters are favorable for their 

 increase. 



Dr. Heermann found the birds of this species wild and dif- 

 ficult to procure, flying and scattering at the least symptom 

 of danger, and again calling each other together Avith a note 

 expressive of gi"eat 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 ])assing through a deep canon 



