64 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



and then they proceed but a short distance before alight- 

 ing, and commence to run again. If the ground per- 

 mits the covey to be followed rapidly and continuously, 

 and the birds find that running is of no avail, they can 

 then be flushed, and they fly swiftly, generally on a level 

 about six or eight feet above the ground, but in a curving 

 direction, not straight forward for any distance, and if 

 the covey becomes well scattered the birds will some- 

 times lie well and flush singly; but this is exceptional, 

 and a state of affairs only arrived at by a long, persistent, 

 and fatiguing pursuit. I imagine that most of the birds 

 that are obtained by the gun are shot upon the ground. 

 Very unsportmanlike, but after one learns their tricks 

 and their manners the natural feeling of denunciation 

 against such a practice that is possessed by all lovers of 

 dog and gun, somehow does not seem to be so easily 

 aroused in those who have followed these birds for food 

 or recreation. If, however, the sportsman fails to obtain 

 either of these, there is one thing he does get without 

 stint — exercise. 



Gambel's Partridge bears well great extremes of tem- 

 perature and is apparently quite as comfortable where 

 the thermometer indicates ioo° in the shade, as in 

 the keen, rarefied air that blows around the mountain 

 tops at an elevation of 8000 or 9000 feet. When the 

 heat is as great as that mentioned above, this species 

 seeks the bottoms of the canons, or the banks of the 

 creeks, and keeps in the shade of the dense thickets 

 usually found in such situations, or, as is frequently 

 the case, perches in the trees. This custom is habitual 

 to it, for it is quite an arboreal bird, taking refuge 

 on the branches of trees or bushes if suddenly 

 alarmed, or when the members of a flock become scat- 

 tered after having been compelled to take wing. The 



