304 AMEKICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



start from San Francisco in the morning, and return the 

 same evening with a bag of fifty, sixty, or seventy-five 

 birds, but over the same ground at the present time it is 

 sometimes difficult to bag a dozen in a day's shooting. 

 In the southern counties, however, where no restriction 

 is placed on quail shooting, splendid sport can be en- 

 joyed, as the birds exist in thousands and are as tame 

 as chickens in a farm-yard. The fault with most inex- 

 perienced sportsmen in shooting valley quails is that of 

 firing too quickly and before they have fairly covered 

 them. In shooting over a dog, the gun should be carried 

 at a '' ready," and when the birds are flushed, a prompt 

 and decided aim should be taken, and the trigger pulled 

 gently while the gun is in motion — or in " swing," as 

 the hunters say. This "swing "is absolutely necessary 

 for bagging them, being far preferable to snap-shooting 

 — that is, pulling the trigger as soon as the gun touches 

 the shoulder. The most effective method of destroying 

 the birds in California is by trapping. The trap gener- 

 ally used is that known as the figure four, which is sure 

 and noiseless, and does its work so thoroughly that half 

 a dozen similar machines, well attended, would not leave 

 a quail in a large extent of country in a week. One of 

 them is more destructive than twelve guns, as escape from 

 it is impossible. Some of the quails weigh nine ounces, 

 and I have known a few to go as high as ten, but the 

 average weight is between five and eight ounces. 



Gambel's partridge, or Arizona quail {Lopliortijx gam- 

 heli), is found in the south-western portion of the United 

 States, its range extending from the thirty-fifth parallel 

 to Mexico, and from Texas to the Colorado River. It is 

 very abundant in Arizona and New Mexico, and seems to 

 be equally at home on the parched deserts and the rocky 

 hills. It is, according to Archer, larger than the Virginia 

 bird, approaching more closely in size to the California, 

 or valley colin, but from which it is easily distinguished 



