GAMBEL'S QUAIL 95 



"Gambel's quail may be looked for in every kind of 

 cover. Where they abound it is almost impossible to 

 miss them, and coveys may often be seen on exposed 

 sand heaps, along open roads, or in the cleared patches 

 around settlers' cabins. If they have any aversion, it 

 is for thick, high pine woods without any undergrowth ; 

 there they only casually stray. They are particularly 

 fond of the low, tangled brush along creeks, the dense 

 groves of young willows that grow in similar places, 

 and the close-set chaparral of hillocks or mountain 

 ravines. 



"I have often found them also among huge granitic 

 boulders and masses of lava, where there was little or 

 no vegetation except some straggling leaves, and have 

 flushed them from the dryer knolls in the midst of a 

 reedy swamp. Along the Gila and Colorado they live 

 in such brakes as I have described in speaking of 

 Abert's finch, and they frequent the groves of mes- 

 quite and mimosa that form so conspicuous a feature of 

 the scenery in those places. These scrubby trees form 

 dense interlacing copses, only to be penetrated with the 

 utmost difficulty ; but beneath their spreading, scrawny 

 branches are open, intersecting ways, along which the 

 quail roams at will, enjoying the slight shade. In the 

 most sterile regions they are apt to come together in 

 numbers about the few water-holes or moist spots that 

 may be found, and remain in the vicinity, so that they 

 become almost as good indication of the presence of 

 water as the doves themselves. A noteworthy fact in 

 their history is their ability to bear, without apparent 



