XV 

 SMALL GAME SHOOTmG — I 



UPON" and around our ranch were vast stretches 

 of low sage-brush that harboured quail in- 

 numerable. Then it was easy — not so very easy, 

 for we were rank shots — to make big bags, and the 

 difficulty lay not in killing the birds, but in the 

 disposal of them afterwards. For our neighbours 

 had no " use " for quails (nor for sweetbreads, which 

 we obtained from our butcher for nothing) ; and in 

 time we, too, tired of the bird's peculiar flavour. In 

 Kibroth-hattaavah, we are told, six hundred thou- 

 sand men fed upon these birds for a full month, 

 until the food became " loathsome " unto them ; 

 and it is said in California that no white man can 

 eat one quail a day for thirty consecutive days : 

 toujours perdrix ! 



Callipepla Californica, however, must not be 

 confounded with the bob- white ( Colinus Virginia- 

 nus), nor with the tiny Chinese quail who is kept 

 for fighting purposes, and to warm the hands of 

 his owner. Our bird is the Beau Brummel of quail, 

 a dandy at all seasons, even in extreme old age. 

 Who does not admire his dapper surtout of grey- 

 blue, his sporting waistcoat of brown and white, his 

 black, glossy crest, his polished extremities, and 

 his charming manners in captivity? 



And what superb sport he affords I 



18 



