THE QUAILS OF CALIFORNIA. 1/5 



Jones then concluded to go over the ridge, 

 thinking the last birds would not fly far. He 

 and the dog bushwacked the whole of the next 

 slope without hearing the buzz of a wing. He 

 then thought he would leave this flock and try 

 to find a larger one on better ground. Just as 

 he turned around to go there was a distant buzz, 

 and away to the right two or three birds were 

 sailing up a hill. Whereupon Jones concluded 

 that the business would have to be learned anew. 

 In which he was most eminently correct, for 

 the valley quail of California has kept better 

 pace with improvements in guns and learned 

 more from his persecutors than any other thing 

 that lives. 



Jones decided to try the large two-plumed 

 quail of the mountains. But he soon found the 

 cheap breechloader and the game-butcher had 

 penetrated the deepest shades even there, and that 

 this quail had learned something. He heard no 

 more the tender Ch ch cJi ch ch clieeeeali 

 cheeeah or the silvery Cloi cloi cloi that used 

 to ring along the morning hills. He found, as 

 with the valley quail, that a dog was more use- 

 ful than before to find the flock at first, but of 



