76 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



the mountain-side quite difficult to find. The chicks are 

 little gray scraps of energy, that can eclipse even Bob 

 White in getting away with half the shell still clinging. 



The mountain quail does not unite in large flocks as the 

 valley quail does, nor does it descend into the valley of 

 the mountains any more after reaching full growth than 

 before. It remains always until next mating-time in the 

 levees in which it was hatched. It is more apt to fly into 

 trees when flushed than the valley bird, and, like it, will 

 not lie well to a dog. Like the valley quail, it must be 

 thoroughly scared and scattered and the bevy broken up. 

 Then, if the cover be good, it will often lie quite well, but 

 the covey will quickly unite if not hotly pursued, and 

 once together again the birds will quickly run, and almost 

 always up-hill arid into the roughest ground and densest 

 cover. 



Both the valley and mountain quail are easily tamed, 

 and live well in a cage. I have known the mountain 

 quail run at large every day with the chickens and return 

 to its coop at night. The valley bird does not well 

 endure very deep snows or very cold weather, but it 

 would seem that the mountain quail could be easily raised 

 on the Atlantic Coast. It loves the higher slopes of the 

 great inland hills, where it becomes very cold in winter 

 and the snow is very deep. Far away upward it climbs, 

 and lives and loves where the snow-banks linger through 

 mid-summer, where the cedar and fir are dwarfed and 

 distorted. Even far above where the blue jay squalls, and 

 where the condor rarely wheels, where no hawk, wild- 

 cat, coyote, or fox worries the fond mother, away up 

 where nearly all other birds have disappeared, this charm- 

 ing bird seems still at home. 



Both of these quails will survive long years after the 

 market's royal demands and the piggishness of the "big 

 bag" hunter have made Bob White a curiosity. There 



