442 BLUE QUAIL — CALLIPEPLA SQUAMATA. 



ance, as ■well illustrated by the domestic Cock and Hen, and especially 

 by the Peafowls. Among Arizonian Gallince, the Massena differs most 

 in sexual distinctions of color, for the female is quite subdued in her 

 dress, while the male is showy in coloration. The Blue presents the 

 other extreme, as if, with tender gallantry, he were unwilling to outshine. 



This species is a bird of noticeably terrestrial habits, rarely taking to 

 trees or bushes unless hard pressed in one of those extremities into 

 which some people are fond of forcing any birds large enough to be 

 worth a charge of shot, and wary enough to make it exciting sport to 

 penetrate their poor bodies with it. It generally trusts to its legs rather 

 than its wings, though these are not at all deficient in size or strength. 

 On level ground it glides along with marvellous celerity, and makes 

 good progress over tiie most rocky and difficult places. As a conse- 

 quence it is rather diJBficult to shoot fairly, though it may be " potted " 

 in great style by one so disposed ; and it will probably require several 

 generations in training before it can be taught to lie well to a dog. I 

 am inclined to think, indeed, that the lying of Quail, an essential feature 

 for the chase in its perfection, is almost as much a result of education 

 as the "pointing" that the intelligent brute who helps us kill them has 

 learned. In a primitive and strictly natural condition. Quail, as a gen- 

 eral rule, rather use their legs to escape pursuit than squat and attempt 

 to hide. That the reverse is the case with the Virginia Quail 1 am per- 

 fectly aware, but this proves nothing to the contrary, and I am inclined 

 to think its crouching, till almost trodden upon, to be an acquired trick. 

 This would surely be a poor way of escape from any of its natural 

 enemies — any carnivorous bird or mammal ; yet they found it to succeed 

 so well against their chief persecutor, that he has had to call in the 

 aid of a sharper-sighted, sharper-nosed brute than himself, else he might 

 stumble over stubble-fields all day without seeing a bird, except by acci- 

 dent. I presume that Virginia Quail, in the days of Captain Smith and 

 Pocahontas, were very much in the social status of the Arizonian to-day; 

 and these certainly trust to their legs and wings rather than to the 

 artifice of thrusting their heads in tussock of grass, and then fancying 

 they are safe. 



Like our other southwestern species, the Blue Quail has a rather re- 

 stricted range in the United States. The valley of the Eio Grande at 

 large may be given as its especial habitat ; it is said to be more abun- 

 dant there than I have found it to be in other regions. Colonel McCall, 

 with that accuracy for which he has well-deserved name, states that 

 this valley, "though comparatively narrow, contains a country of great 

 extent from north to south, and embraces, in its stretch between the 

 Eiocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico, every variety of climate, 

 from the extreme of cold to that of tropical heat. This entire region, not 

 even excepting the narrow mountain valleys, covered in winter with 

 deep snows, is inhabited by the species under consideration. I have 

 met with it on the Eio Grande and its affluents from the 25th to the 38th 

 degree of north latitude — that is to say, from below Monterey, in Mexico, 

 along the borders of the San Juan Eiver to its junction with the Eio 

 Grande ; and at different points on the latter as high up as the Taos 

 and other northern branches which gush from the mountain sides. I 

 have also found it, though less frequently, near the head of the Eiado 

 Creek, which likewise rises in the Eocky Mountains and flows eastward 

 to the Canadian." I did not meet with the bird near Taos, and we have 

 no knowledge of its occurrence so far north, except that afforded by 

 Colonel McCall's observations ; I presume this must be the extreme limit 

 of its range. The only naturalist of the Eailroad Surveys who appears 



