PLUMED QUAIL — ^LOPHOETYS GAMBELL 433 



deserts further south. We may without hesitation fix upou the valleys 

 of the Gila and Colorado as its (ientres of abundance ; about Fort 

 Yuma, for example, there were more Quails to the square mile than I 

 ever saw elsewhere, and, indeed, I could scarcely see how many more 

 could well have been accommodated with food and hiding-places. Ihe 

 numbers diminish but little up the river to Fort Mojave, but they soon 

 after decrease. Quail being so abundant at Fort Whipple, I regarded 

 it as a little singular that I saw none at all in approaching that locality 

 from the eastward, along the same parallel ; but such was the case. 

 Numerous observers, however, attest its presence at various points 

 along the Eio Grande. Southward the Quail passes beyond the United 

 States, and spreads over contiguous portions of Mexico. 



An interesting fact in the distribution of this species is the effect of 

 the Colorado desert in shutting it off from the fertile portions of Cali- 

 fornia. This dreary, sterile waste offers a barrier to its westward exten- 

 sion that is only exceptionally overcome. Although the birds enter the 

 desert a little way, they rarely reach far enough to mix with the repre- 

 sentative species of California (L. californicus). The strip of country 

 that mostly assists in their occasional passage westward is along the 

 Mojave Eiver, a stream arising in the San Bernardino Mountains, and 

 flowing eastward toward the Colorado, from which it is shut off by a 

 range of hills, and consequently sinks in the desert at Soda Lake. 

 Among other birds, the two kinds of Plumed Quail — Gambel's and the 

 Californian — meet along this comparatively fertile thoroughfare, upon 

 neutral ground, as Drs. Heermann and Cooper, as well as 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 your- 

 self, 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 avast plain of desolation surrounded, 

 and at intervals intersected, by abrupt mountain ranges, which are 

 little better than gigantic heaps of scoria; imagine this scenery to be 

 actually glowing under the direct rays of a 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. Ton may 

 perceive in his rear a few stunted cottonwood-trees scattered along the 

 edge of a channel, in which, apparently, water once was, but now is, 

 not ; while around him, here and there, is a light-leafed mezquite, 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 iilaiutive 

 voice of this bird as he strove to cheer his mate while occupied in the 

 tedious task of incubation." And singularly enough, the bird is almost 

 equally hemmed in by desert to thfe eastward as well; for according to 

 the same writer's accounts, "a sandy desert, between the Pecos and 

 Devil's River, is the barrier beyond which the species under consider- 

 ation has not extended its range." 



Such a glimpse of the haunts of the Plumed Quail make one wonder 

 how it ever became a game bird at all ; how sportsmen could be able 

 to make game of it, without being themselves rather made game of! 

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