350 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



follow them, it will be seen that many of these quail 

 cannot be pursued for sport, as sport is commonly un- 

 derstood; that is to say, the shooting of a game bird 

 over a pointing dog. This a priori conclusion is con- 

 firmed by statements made by sportsmen who have 

 lived for many years in Arizona, one of whom, Mr. 

 Herbert Brown, not only a sportsman, but a field natur- 

 alist of great ability, tells me that he has never heard 

 of a dog being used on Gambel's partridge in all the 

 time he has lived in the southwest. Yet Allen Kelly 

 says that in the irrigated districts of the Imperial 

 Valley, CaL, GambeFs quail lies well where there is 

 cover, but on the bare ground runs like a deer. 



I have seen the valley quail in southern California 

 and the mountain quail in the Sierras, but have 

 never yet seen either hunted with dogs. That the 

 mountain quail can be shot over dogs is hardly to be 

 doubted, but the case is different with the valley quail 

 living in the lowlands of dry California. On the other 

 hand, in Vancouver Island the introduced valley quail 

 sometimes lies to a dog among the thick undergrowth, 

 much as the eastern quail would lie. When startled 

 they get up in a thick coveys of fifteen or twenty birds 

 and scatter and sometimes lie well. 



VALLEY QUAIL. 



Of the California valley quail in the vicinity of 

 Pasadena, N. P. Leach says on this point : "Up here 

 on the mesas and among the sage brush and grease- 



