CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 173 



When the quail season opened in September we had many splendid 

 hunts, but no potting was allowed, Aving shooting only ; and with birds 

 so plentiful, we had w^onderful sport. I remember one hunt where 

 we slept out at one of these San Jacinto plains springs and in the 

 morning saw the enormous bands of quail coming up for water, it 

 made one's blood tingle with excitement. The ground for hundreds 

 of yards all around was a moving mass of thousands of running birds. 

 We hid in the brush and let them come in to water, then suddenly 

 jumped up with a shout and succeeded in scattering the flock so that 

 in an hour's shooting we had bagged 97 quail, all wing shots. We 

 did not move more than one hundred yards from the spring, as every 

 rock on the hillside had from one to a dozen quail under it. 



]Mr. Reche stated that when the Sunset Route of the Southern 

 Pacific started in 1880, many young men in southern California started 

 hunting quail for the San Francisco market, but that nearly all the 

 quail rotted in the sacks before reaching San Francisco, so that the 

 business proved unprofitable. Before refrigeration could be arranged, 

 the big bands of quail were all killed off. He stated that with his 

 brother he started to shoot for the market, but his returns did not pay 

 the express charges and the cost of powder and shot. He stated that 

 by actual count he picked up 363 quail as a result of eleven pot shots 

 of his old muzzle loader at the spring where we found the V-shaped 

 trough. This was an average of 33 birds to each shot, and he said he 

 would wait until the trough was actually covered with quail before 

 he would shoot. 



Coming back to recollections in and around my home in San 

 Francisco, I remember that in the summer of 1875 I visited a camp of 

 young men in the mountains back of Pescadero, in San Mateo County. 

 This was in July and there was a game law against shooting quail, 

 but these men, "just for the fun of it," were potting quail by the 

 hundreds and had a large sack full ; in fact, so many that their camp 

 could not eat them and we were invited to "help yourself if you will 

 keep your mouth shut. ' ' 



In the California Market, San Francisco, in the seasonal months 

 from September to February, the oyster cafes served ' ' quail on toast, 

 25c," and when I lunched there my daily order Avas this most palatable 

 dish. 



Remembering the adage, "You can not eat 30 quail in 30 days," 

 I tried and accomplished the feat. It was supposed the adage came 

 from the idea that a person could not obtain quail on each day of 

 thirty consecutive days or that you would so tire of them that you 

 could not carry out your bargain. How^ever, as stated above, I did 

 obtain and did eat a quail each day for thirty consecutive days. I 

 might state that the restaurant had a fine cook who understood how 

 to prepare them with plenty of butter, and they were delicious. 



As I was working and had to keep regular office hours in San 

 Francisco, most of my hunting was on Saturdays and Sundays and 

 occasional holidays and vacations. I liave a journal and record book 

 of all my hunts from 1877 down to the present year, 1919, just 

 forty-two years. Most of the shooting has been at ducks and geese 

 on the Suisun marsh, where I was a member of the Cordelia and Ibis 

 shooting clubs. 



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