200 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



on, owing to their timid disposition. They must there- 

 fore be scattered before a person can bag many. One of the 

 surest ways of getting a shot at them is to go above the 

 place where they are seen and send a well-trained dog to 

 flush them. On seeing him they rush out singly, ni 

 pairs, or in small bevies, and run up the hill as fast as 

 they can, and if the sportsman is carefully concealed he 

 may then flush them and count with both his barrels. 

 I have killed seven out of a bevy of thirteen by this 

 stratagem, and an acquaintance of mine bagged nineteen 

 out of twenty-seven. The dog employed for working 

 them up should be very slow, and taught to beat the 

 shrubbery in the most careful manner. 



One of the strangest characteristics of this bird is 

 the fierceness with which a bevy will attack any of its 

 members which may have been wounded. The unin- 

 jured seem to forget their danger in their animosity 

 against the unfortunate, for they will continue an 

 assault upon a crippled comrade until several are laid 

 low by the fowler. I have heard two or three men 

 who are well acquainted with the habits of the birds 

 say that they do not assail the wounded unless the 

 sportsman is out of sight, and that they desist the 

 moment they see him. I have never met a person 

 who could satisfactorily explain this peculiar trait 

 in their character, if I except a philosophic individual, 

 who said it clearly proved that they were closely re- 

 lated to some types of humanity, ''because they only 

 attacked the helpless or those who could not retaliate." 



The Valley, or meadow quail {Lopliortyx californicus), 

 is a resident of California, Oregon, and Washington Ter- 

 ritory, but is not found east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 unless it has been transported into the region recently. 

 It is smaller than its mountain congener, but its plumage 

 is equally as handsome, and its flesh as tender. It fre- 

 quents hillsides, wooded gulches, chaparral, and the low 



