CHAPTER IX. 
QUAILS. 
Quails—The California quail—General sketch—Its haunts and habits— 
Best time for shooting it—Quail dogs—Uninjured birds attack the 
cripples—The Valley, or meadow quail—Its haunts, habits, and 
color—Is very prolific—Vast numbers poisoned in California— 
Very destreutive to green crops—Pack in September—Its faults 
as a game bird—The best method of bagging it—Quail traps— 
Average weight of quail—Gambel’s partridge, or Arizona quail— 
Its haunts and habits—Moults twice a year—The blue colin, or 
scaly partridge—Its haunts and habits—The Massina quail—Gen- 
eral sketch—The migratory quail—The best way of releasing 
bevies—The Virginia quail, or Bob White—Its range and colors— 
The Florida and Texas varieties—Nests and eggs—Cautious chicks 
—Tricks of the mother to guard her young—Quail associate with 
barn-yard fowl and breed in confinement—Affectionate males— 
Food—Favorite feeding grounds—Their resorts in fine, rainy, and 
snowy weather—They double like a hare—The “running” sea- 
son—Their mode of sleeping—Their enemies—The best season for 
quail shooting—Do quails withhold their seent—Abundance in the 
West—Large bags—Easily killed in the early portion of the sea- 
son—Charge for a gun—Best guns for shooting them—A trip after 
quail in Nebraska—The penalty for missing a bird—A martyr to 
duty—The best side of a hedge in quail shooting—A pot shot— 
Why prairie wolves howl—A poetic effusion—Success of our trip 
—How to feed dogs on a shooting expedition. 
The sub-family Odontophorine, to which quails belong, 
has a large number of representatives on the American 
Continent, about forty species in all, but the majority of 
these are confined to Mexico and Central and South 
America, there being only six species and two varieties in 
the United States. All are pretty, and some are very 
handsome, especially those found in the regions adjoin- 
ing the Pacific Ocean. 
The California quail (Oreortyx pictus), which is also 
known as the plumed and the mountain quail, is the hand- 
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