CHAPTER V. 



QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST. 



THE beautiful little game-bird of which I am 

 now about to write is well known in almost all 

 parts of the country. It is a welcome visitor 

 about the homesteads of the farmer in the win- 

 ter season, and makes pleasant the fields and 

 brakes in spring and summer. Quail are now 

 very abundant in the Western States, much more 

 so, I believe, than in those of the Atlantic sea- 

 board, although they are found in considerable 

 numbers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, and Virginia. They are much more nu- 

 merous now in Illinois and the other prairie 

 States than they were formerly. I think the cul- 

 tivation of the land and the growth of Osage 

 orange hedges have brought about the increase. 

 The hedges furnish excellent nesting-places, and 

 are also of great use to the quail as places of 

 refuge and security when pursued by hawks. The 

 latter are very hard on quail. Quail like the 

 neighborhood of cultivated land, and where they 



