PEllDICID.E 



THE PAllTRIDOKS. 



/ t 



OrenrtifT picttts. 



and when all was still again weve recalled l)y the mother with a duih, niuuh 

 like the call ut' tlie coiinuon Hen. The party I'retiueutly saw coveys ami 

 broods of tiiese birds, the 

 young of which were about 

 half grown, until they reached 

 tlie plains of Tit lliver. 

 None were seen in the Kla- 

 math Lake basin, the country 

 being too bare and flat. They 

 were tagiiin met with among 

 the hills bordering the Wil- 

 lamette Valley, and were 

 found from the Columbia, al- 

 most uninterruptedly througli 

 the Siskiyou, Calapooza, and 

 Trinity Mountains to Cali- 

 fornia. They are favorite pets with the miners, by whom they are frequently 

 kept in confinement, and not unfrequently connnand a higli price. Their 

 flesh is said to be white and excellent, and fully equal to that of any of the 

 family. 



According to Dr. Cooper, this Quail is very rare in Washington Territory, a 

 few small coveys having been met with about Vancouver, as he was informed 

 by the officers in the gari'ison. He never succeeded in finding any, tiiough 

 he hunted for them several times with a dog. They became (pute common 

 soutli of the Columbia, towards the prairies of the Willamette. He inquired 

 especially for them in other parts of the Territory, l)>it never heard of them. 

 In California, south of San Francisco, this bird is said to be a rare curiosity 

 to the market-hunters, one or two sometimes occurring among flocks of the 

 Caliibrnia Quail. It is known to them as tlu Mountain Quail. Dr. 

 S\ickley states that the birds in the Willamette Valley were introduced tliere, 

 and that they are now nudtiplying rapidly upon the prairies l)ack of Fort 

 Vanco\iver. With a very little care it is thought the whole of the Territory 

 may become well stocked with them, as the absence of foxes west of the 

 Cascade Mountains and the mild open winters are favorable for their in- 

 crease. 



Dr. Heermann found tlie birds of this species wild and difficult to procure, 

 flying and scattering .t the least syni})tom of danger, and again calling each 

 other together with a note expres.sive of great solicitude, much resembling 

 that of a Hen-Turkey gathering her brood around l\er. During tlie survey 

 he observed these birds only once, and then but for a few minutes, as tliey 

 were passing through a deep canon leading down to Elizabetli Lake. They 

 were .seen by the hunters on the mountains surrounding Tejon Valley ; but 

 though he went several times in search of them, he obtained none. 



Mr. Kidgway met with the Mountain Quail on the foot-hills of the Sierra 



