GAMBEUS QUAIL 93 



myself, have witnessed. Much further south Colonel 

 McCall found birds at Alamo Mucho, forty-four miles 

 west of the Colorado; but still the desert is in effect 

 the barrier I have represented, and the two quails, 

 speaking generally, do not meet. One wonders the 

 less at this who has any good idea of the Colorado 

 desert, such as may be gained, for example, from the 

 following passage from Colonel McCall's article, which 

 remains associated in my mind with the plumed quails, 

 with all the freshness of first impressions. Speaking 

 of the Alamo, where he shot a pair, 'Here is in truth 

 a desert!' exclaims the colonel. 'Figure to yourself, 

 if you can, a portion of this fair earth where for some 

 hundreds of miles the whole crust seems to have been 

 reduced to ashes by the action of internal fires ; behold 

 a vast plain of desolation, surrounded, and at intervals 

 intersected, by abrupt mountain ranges which are little 

 better than gigantic heaps of scoria. Imagine this scen- 

 ery to be actually glowing under the direct rays of the 

 midsummer sun, and you may have some idea of the 

 prospect that meets the eye of the traveler who looks 

 out upon the desert from the well of the Alamo. You 

 may perceive in his rear a few stunted cottonwood trees, 

 scattered along the edge of a channel in which appar- 

 ently water once was, but now is not; while around 

 him, here and there, is a light-leaved mesquite that 

 stretches forth its slender arms and appears to invite 

 him to a shade that is but a mockery. Here it was that 

 I first heard the plaintive voice of this bird as he strove 

 to cheer his mate while occupied in the tedious task 



