quail. The use of the word "quail," however, is becoming 

 common in parts of the South because many Northern men and 

 clubs now have quail preserves in the South, where the shooting 

 is good, always, because the birds are properly looked after. 

 Now that we are introducing the gray partridge of Europe the 

 term quail, applied to our indigenous species, may be useful to 

 distinguish the birds. 



The other American quail are the California mountain and 

 valley quail, the Gambel's quail, a bird somewhat similar in 

 size to the California valley quail, the two forms of the scaled 

 quail and the peculiar Mearn's quail which resembles, somewhat, 

 a little guinea-hen. These Western and Southwestern quail 

 all are handsome birds and they are very good to eat, but often 

 they run before the dogs and they are not, on this account, 

 such desirable objects of pursuit as the bob-white. 



Our quail are monogamous. They build their nests on the 

 ground and lay numerous eggs. One pair of any species and its 

 progeny would produce five or six million birds, at a low 

 estimate, in eight years if there were no losses; so that it is 

 evident that these birds quickly can be made tremendously 

 abundant, as the gray partridges are in Hungary, by looking 

 after them properly. This means, simply, to check or to reduce, 

 as far as possible, the losses due to their natural enemies and to 

 climate; to stop the entire destruction of the covers and the 

 loss of natural foods; to protect the birds against fires, floods, 

 and illegal destruction (especially during the nesting season). 



I have visited many places where these matters have been 

 attended to, and, at some of them, the birds were fully as 

 abundant as it was desirable to have them; and they remain 

 plentiful although thousands are shot every season. Many 

 quail clubs quite near New York have purchased and introduced 

 the quail on lands which they rent for this purpose and they 

 have excellent shooting and will continue to do so until the 

 increasing population makes it impractical to have game of any 

 kind so near a large city. The annual dues in some of these 

 clubs are only $10 or $15 and the sport and the food obtained 

 are well worth the money. In many places there would be no 

 birds, and, of course, no shooting without such industry.* 



*Quail shooting is prohibited in Ohio, in New York, excepting Long Island, 

 and is prohibited or restricted to short seasons and small bags elsewhere. 

 These restrictions must be increased everywhere if the laws prohibit profitable 

 quail breeding. 



20 



