40 RAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



tected the unsuspecting darlings feeding in tlie open, 

 and lie liad quietly potted them. As they flew round I 

 let the beauties have both barrels, and twain of them 

 were laid low, and my hunting friend also secured one. 

 On returning to our Yankee we found him loading 

 his cannon, and chuckling to himself: "Dang me if I 

 didn^t serve them blarmed quail that trick fifty times 

 last fall j and I guess Fve ketched them the very first 

 day Pve had a chance at ^em." I mildly asked him 

 whether he considered that sport. " Wal, I calkilate 

 Pve got seven fowls to your two, and that^s the way 

 to look at it.^^ 



After this little exhibition of potting, our friend 

 guessed he would make tracks back, having directed 

 us to the aforesaid "holler.^^ When he had gone we 

 separated, my calculating friend taking the low ground, 

 and I the slopes of the hills. These slopes were mostly 

 covered with wild oats, and I never saw anything like 

 the abundance of the birds ; they literally swarmed, so 

 many getting up at once on all sides, that they really 

 puzzled me for the first half-hour. In four hours^ time 

 I bagged thirty brace, and lost and missed half as many. 

 I shot also a good many ground squirrel. By the by 

 these latter are exquisite eating; stew them in port or 

 claret, and they are '^ some pumpkins.^' Returning I 

 bagged several more, until at last my ammunition gave out, 

 but my game bag showed forty brace as my day's work. 

 My friend had also got about thirty brace. This may 

 seem a pretty good day's work to some; but to one 

 who has seen the incredible quantities of quail in Cali- 

 fornia it will appear nothing remarkable. 



We stayed in this valley about a fortnight, during 

 which our bags averaged fifty brace a day, and as quail 



