486 NATURAL HISTORY. 



If difficulty in shooting increases a bird's gaminess, then Gambel's quail 

 deserves to rank high among the game-birds. It does not flush so readily 

 as our own eastern quail and partridge, and its strong and even flight calls 

 for the highest skill of the gunner. Indeed, were the locality different 

 Gambel's quail would rank high ; for, says Dr. Coues, " Here is plenty at 

 least, if not peace. Nothing mars the pleasures of the chase, but the 

 chances of being chased. Were it not for the Indians, we should have 

 here the acme of quail-shooting." 



There are many other quail in the west, varying in size and impor- 

 tance. Largest and handsomest is the plumed quail of California and 



Oregon, with its two long, plume-like feathers 

 curving gracefully over the back. Then there 

 is the blue quail of Arizona, in which the sexes 

 differ but little in appearance, and which has 

 decidedly terrestrial habits, and can run very 

 swiftly, but is not easily flushed. The Mas- 

 sena quail, too, has about the same range, and 

 is remarkable for its utter fearlessness. 



What constitutes a quail, and what a par- 

 tridge, is a question about which there is con- 

 siderable difference of opinion. Naturalists 

 have reiterated the statement that we have no 

 fig. 409.— Plumed quaii (Oreortyx true partridge in this country, but iii spite of 



all their protests the term continues to live. 

 When our ancestors came to this country they applied to its native birds 

 and mammals the terms that they used for somewhat similar forms in 

 their old home, and then were the terms, robin, partridge, and the like, 

 fastened on species which bear but a superficial resemblance to those of 

 Europe. The confusion which this introduced went even farther. Thus 

 the Pilgrim Fathers called one bird a partridge and another a quail, while 

 the ancestors of the first families of Virginia applied the name partridge 

 to the quail of the north. This confusion persists until the present time, 

 and the only escape seems to be to use the name bob-white for the bird 

 known to science as Ortyx virginianus — the partridge of Virginia, the quail 

 of New England. 



The bob-white is one of the best of our game-birds. It furnishes fine 

 sport for the hunter, and unlike its relatives of the west, seems to know 

 exactly how it should act in the presence of a dog. And then when 

 cooked it has its value ; for its flesh is delicious, and can hardly be excelled. 

 It is not a timorous bird ; but rears its progeny even in the vicinity of 

 our large cities, and occurs in goodly numbers within five or six miles of 



