170 BIG GAME FIELDS 



uttered a low, menacing growl. The bullet sped 

 true and he fell lifeless to the ground. We had 

 to drive the dogs off to keep them from tearing 

 the hide, as I wanted the skin in good shape. Be- 

 fore skinning, we took several pictures and meas- 

 ured him. He was just seven feet six inches. 

 This is about as large a male as is usually found, 

 although they are sometimes taken larger. Out 

 of fourteen killed on Mr. Roosevelt's hunt the 

 largest measured eight feet; the rest ranging 

 from four and a half to seven. This was the 

 best day we had had and there was much rejoic- 

 ing around the camp-fire that night. 



While Hi was busy next day doing a little 

 work on the lion hide, I took my shotgun and 

 climbed up to a high mesa to bag a few of a cer- 

 tain kind of quail native in this section. Prob- 

 ably few sportsmen are acquainted with this odd 

 species of a most beautiful game bird. It is 

 locally called "fool quail," but the proper name 

 is Messena partridge, known in territories it fre- 

 quents within our borders as the black, black- 

 bellied or fool quail. The Messena partridge is 

 the most fantastically colored of all the family 

 to which it belongs, with a head-stripe mark like 

 those of the clown in a pantomime. It is, how- 

 ever, a very handsome bird and would attract at- 



