92 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



habits not unlike that species, except so far as these 

 habits are modified by its different surroundings. 



Like many gallinaceous birds, Gambel's quail is very 

 social in habit, and at the proper season they get to- 

 gether in great flocks, and when alarmed and driven 

 to wing may get up all about one, only to disappear 

 almost at once among the thick cover or in the distance. 



Dr. Coues, in his article on this species published in 

 "The Birds of the Northwest/' designates the valleys 

 of the Gila and Colorado as its centers of abundance. 

 This article is well worth quoting in part, as painting 

 charming pictures of a region little known to most 

 sportsmen, but one of extreme interest. 



He says: "An interesting fact in the distribution 

 of this species is the effect of the Colorado desert in 

 shutting it off from the fertile portions of California. 

 This dreary, sterile waste offers a barrier to its west- 

 ward extension that is only exceptionally overcome. 

 Although the birds enter the desert a little way, they 

 rarely reach far enough to mix with the representative 

 species of California (L. calif ornicus). The strip of 

 country that mostly assists in their occasional passage 

 westward is along the Mojave River, a stream rising in 

 the San Bernardino Mountains, and flowing eastward 

 toward the Colorado, from which it is shut off by. a 

 range of hills, and consequently sinks in the desert at 

 Soda Lake. Among other birds, the two kinds of 

 plumed quail Cambers and the California meet 

 along this comparatively fertile thoroughfare upon neu- 

 tral ground, as Drs. Heermann and Cooper, as well as 



