GAMBEL’S QUAIL 95 
“Gambel’s quail may be looked for in every kind of 
cover. Where they abound it is almost impossible to 
miss them, and coveys may often be seen on exposed 
sand heaps, along open roads, or in the cleared patches 
around settlers’ cabins. If they have any aversion, it 
is for thick, high pine woods without any undergrowth; 
there they only casually stray. They are particularly 
fond of the low, tangled brush along creeks, the dense 
groves of young willows that grow in similar places, 
and the close-set chaparral of hillocks or mountain 
ravines. 
“T have often found them also among huge granitic 
boulders and masses of lava, where there was little or 
no vegetation except some straggling leaves, and have 
flushed them from the dryer knolls in the midst of a 
reedy swamp. Along the Gila and Colorado they live 
in such brakes as I have described in speaking of 
Abert’s finch, and they frequent the groves of mes- 
quite and mimosa that form so conspicuous a feature of 
the scenery in those places. These scrubby trees form 
dense interlacing copses, only to be penetrated with the 
utmost difficulty ; but beneath their spreading, scrawny 
branches are open, intersecting ways, along which the 
quail roams at will, enjoying the slight shade. In the 
most sterile regions they are apt to come together in 
numbers about the few water-holes or moist spots that 
may be found, and remain in the vicinity, so that they 
become almost as good indication of the presence of 
water as the doves themselves. A noteworthy fact in 
their history is their ability to bear, without apparent 
