THE QUAILS OF CALIFORNIA. 75 



pot-metal, he generally has the laugh on the countryman, 

 and is again gorging his fine raisin-grapes before he has 

 got fairly into the house. 



But the mountain quail is all gentility and politeness. 

 He lingers around in your presence as if he would like to 

 trust you, as if his better judgment inclined him to be 

 your friend, if only his foolish little legs could be per- 

 suaded it were safe. But the legs are the better logician, 

 and^a decided tendency to disappear underlies all his 

 most trustful movements. In many parts of the State 

 this quail is much wilder than in others, and is so even 

 when little shot at; but in the mountains of the south 

 they are the most artless little innocents imaginable. 

 Yet, when once they find their confidence in you misplaced, 

 their little feet bear them away with a marvelous speed; 

 and when they find their legs too slow, they can unfold 

 as swift a pair of wings as any quail, and dart with ease 

 through the heaviest chaparral. Quick must be the eye 

 and the aim to catch one before it wheels behind the 

 dense arms of the manzanita, which will stop fully half 

 the shot, and quicker still the eye and hand that can 

 scatter on the air feathers of blue and cinnamon and 

 white before the owner crosses the opening between two 

 dense thickets of lilac. Often must the shot mow down 

 the dense green of the brush live-oak, and often on the 

 steep hill-side must one drop on one knee to catch a sight 

 on the swift-scudding mark before it fades among the 

 leaves above. 



The calling-note of this bird is a mellow cloi, cloi, cloi, 

 or woi, woi, woi, penetrating and far-reaching as the note 

 of the upland plover. Its note of alarm is a C?L, ch, ch, 

 ch, cTieeah, sounding sometimes harder, like quit, quit, 

 quit, quit, queea7i, most dolorous and distressing in tone 

 when the mother has her little brood with her. It lays 

 from twelve to fifteen eggs of pure white, in a nest along 



