Wild Game of California 



M. T. PAYNE, 

 President California Fish and Game Protective Association 



HE game of California is found in too great variety to be treated 

 as its importance merits in the restricted space which can be 

 allotted to it here. There is no state in the Union which has, 

 or at least had, so wide a range of game birds and animals. All 

 the large game of the United States, except the buffalo, the 

 moose and the Rocky Mountain goat, are found in California. 

 The grizzly bear, the most intrepid of all animals, is a "native son," found 

 nowhere else. The so-called grizzly of the Rocky Mountains is a baby, both 

 in size and ferocity, compared with the true article of California, which in 

 early days were commonly met with weighing from 1500 to 2000 pounds. 

 I saw one killed near the Green Lode mills, in San Bernardino County, 

 which when weighed on the ore scales tipped the beam at a little over 2200, 

 and I helped to kill one later that I am sure was even larger still. 



Besides the giant grizzly, which is distinctively our own, we have the 

 black and brown bear, as well as the mountain lion, the lynx, the wild cat 

 and others of the like, which we of the West have not yet begun to class 

 as game. To these can be added the elk, the antelope, the deer and the 

 mountain sheep; a showing in big game equaled in but few places, if at all. 



In feathered game the State of California occupies a class by itself, 

 both in variety and in quantity. This is especially true with our waterfowl, 

 which has a range of species found nowhere else. And nowhere so plenti- 

 ful. Beside the swan, we have every variety of the goose family found in 

 any part of North America. These include the Canada goose, or "honker," 

 the white-cheeked goose, the Hutchins goose, the small black brant, the 

 sea brant, the white-fronted goose, the snow goose, the Ross goose, the 

 blue goose, the Emperor goose and the barnacle brant. The three latter, 

 however, are met with only occasionally. 



In ducks the variety is still greater. Of the anatinae, or fresh water 

 ducks, the mallard, the gadwell, the widgeon, the pintail the shoveller, 

 the wood duck, the fulvus tree duck, and the green-wing and cinnamon 

 teal are all plentiful. Of the fuligulinea, or salt-water ducks, we have the 

 canvas-back, the red-head, the greater and lesser scaup duck, or blue bills, 

 the ring-neck, (the ring not showing in the winter months. This duck 

 is generally compounded with the greater scaup) the golden-eye, the ruddy 

 and the butter-ball. To these can be added a few other species that are 

 occasional visitors, besides several species of the eiders and all the scoters. 

 In fact, there are only three edible ducks in America, the dusky duck, the 

 Florida black duck and the blue-winged teal, that are not regular visitors 

 to this favored land. Of the limicola, or shore birds, we have about them 

 all, except the woodcock. The list is too long to particularize here. 



In the tetraonidae, or upland birds, we are not so well supplied. 

 Though I doubt if any State in the Union has as many species as this. In 

 the northern part of the State sage hens, the largest of the grouse family, 

 are quite abundant. Along the northern boundary quite a number of ruffed 

 grouse are to be found, and all along the Sierras the sooty and sharp-tail 

 grouse are quite numerous. In the Coast Range from about the latitude 

 of San Francisco north there are an abundance of that species of the 

 mountain quail known to the naturalist as the oreortyx pictus, while the 

 sub-species of the same genus, known as the O. p. plumiferus, makes its 

 home in the Sierras as well as the Coast mountains from San Francisco 

 south. 



But if we have no prairie chickens and no wild turkeys, the Creator 

 has made ample amends in giving us an abundance of the gamiest little 

 bird that flies, the California valley quail. Of these we have three varieties 

 — two species and a sub-species. The one, the lophortyx californicus, 



