54 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



of Texas are at once recognized by northern gunners as 

 essentially the same bird that they know at home in the 

 north. The uneducated birds of the southwest, how- 

 ever, do not afford the same sport furnished by birds 

 frequently pursued, but show the disposition to run be- 

 fore the dog exhibited by the other quail' of the dry 

 country Gambel's, the scaled and the valley quails. 



It is said of bobwhite that years ago it was scarcely 

 found west of the Missouri River, but that it has fol- 

 lowed the settlements north in Minnesota and west in 

 Nebraska. This may be true, but it is quite as likely 

 that it has always existed in this region, but was not 

 observed there until the country became more or less 

 thickly settled. 



Wherever found, the quail is resident and breeds. Al- 

 though occasionally large flocks occur, consisting of 

 twenty-five or thirty birds, it never packs, as do many 

 of the grouse of the open, and where such large flocks 

 are found it is probable that they consist of the first and 

 second broods of the same parents, or of the birds 

 hatched by two hen quail that have occupied the same 

 nest. 



, It must be said, however, that there are at least two 

 records where packs of quail have been seen by good 

 sportsmen of great experience. One of these was 

 Edmund Orgill, who made the following interesting 

 report : 



1 "A curious experience occurred a short time ago to 

 a friend of mine who* went on a hunt to north Missis- 

 sippi, where he had been earlier in the season and found 



