VALLEY QUAIL OF CALIFOENIA ^L. CALIFOBNICCS. 439 



distance, is exceedingly troublesome both to the sportsman and his dog; 

 so mnch so, that the best trained dogs can often be of little or no serv- 

 ice. It is true that this habit of running affords many shots on the 

 ground, and often places the whole bevy directly under fire ; but no true 

 sportsman would thus ingloriously fill his bag by 'potting' a bevy of 

 such noble game birds. Like all their tribe, their flight is exceedingly 

 rapid and vigorous : but it is always even and direct, so that it only 

 requires a very quick hand and eye, and the usual intuitive calculation 

 for cross shots'^, to kill them readily. Xotwithstauding all I hare heard 

 to the contrary, I consider them far from being tough birds, and ^o. 8 

 shot is abundantly large enough for them. The fault in most cases, I 

 presume, is with "the shooter rather than the shot. I may add, that 

 many of the places in which bevies are found would compare unfavor- 

 ably Vith the worst Woodcock-brake of the Eastern States, as regards 

 facilities for obtaining a fair shot. I have had a bevy flushed all around 

 me, and hardly caught a glimpse of a feather. But these and all other 

 difficulties should only increase one's ardor, and confer additional value 

 on the lovely birds when obtained." 



Man is, I suppose, the Quail's worst enemy; what the White does with 

 dog and gun the Eed accomplishes with ingenious snares. The Indians 

 take gTeat numbers alive in this way, for food or to trade with the 

 whites along the Colorado ; and they use the crests for a variety of pur- 

 poses that they consider ornamental. I saw a squaw once who had at 

 least a hundred of them strung on a piece of rope-yarn for a necklace. 

 But the birds have other foes: the larger Hawks prey upon them, so 

 also do the wolves, as I had good evidence upon one occasion, when 

 hunting in a precipitous, rocky place near Fort Whipple. I heard a 

 covey whispering about me as they started to run off in the weeds, and 

 followed them up to get a shot. They passed around a huge boulder 

 that projected from the hill-side, and then, to my surprise, suddenly 

 scattered on wing in every direction, some flying almost in my face. 

 At the same instant a wolf leaped up from the grass, where he had been 

 hiding, a few feet off, intending to waylay the covey, and looking very 

 much disappointed, not to say digusted, at the sudden flight. We had 

 marked the covey together, and were hunting it up from opposite sides, 

 and neither of us could account for their flushing so unexpectedly ; then 

 he caught sight of me, and it was a question which of us was most sur- 

 prised. However, I felt that I owed him a private grudge for getting 

 in the way of the birds and spoiling my shot ; so I fired both barrels in 

 quick succession. With nothing but mustard-seed in my gun, I hardly 

 expected to more than frighten the beast, but he was so near that he 

 rolled over quite handsomely, his hindquarters paralyzed with a charge 

 that took eft'ect in the smaU of the back. I kept his skin as a trophy, 

 and since that time have had unlimited confidence in small shot ! 



VALLEY QUAIL of CALLFOEXIA.— Lophoettx CALIFOE^^CA.* B^). 



This species is readily distinguished from the last. In place of the 

 large black area on the belly, there is a tract of rich golden-brown or 



* Tetrao caJifornicus. Shaw, Nat. ilise. pi. 345. 



Perdix califomicus. Lath.. Ind. Om. Snppl. ISiH. p. Ixii. — AuD., Orn. Biog. v. 1Sj9. 1.5'2, 



pi. 413.— Bp., Syn. 152S, 125 (subg. Oj-tyj).— Hutchix's Cal. Mag. ii, liil, -241. 

 Ortyx califoriiica, Steph., Shaw's Gen. Zool. si, 1619. 3S4. — jAitD.. >>Lit. Lib. iv. 104, nl. 



11.— Cuv.. E. A. (illnst. ed.) Ois. pi. 64.— Besijett. Gard. & Men. Z. S. ii, 29, 



fig. — .— AuD.. Syn. 1839, 199; B. Am. v, li4-2. 67, pi. -290. 

 CMipepla californica, GouuD. ilonog. Odant. 1.?. pi. 16.^Eeich.. Syst. At. l-ir.O. pi. 27. — 



Xewb., p. K. K. Eep. vi, ldo7, 92. — Heerm., ibid, x, 15.59, pt. vi, 60. 



