200 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
on, owing to their timid disposition. They must there- 
fore be scattered before a person can bag many. One of the 
surest ways of getting a shot at them is to go above the 
place where they are seen and send a well-trained dog to 
flush them. On seeing him they rush out singly, in 
pairs, or in small bevies, and run up the hill as fast as 
they can, and if the sportsman is carefully concealed he 
may then flush them and count with both his barrels. 
I have killed seven out of a bevy of thirteen by this 
stratagem, and an acquaintance of mine bagged nineteen 
out of twenty-seven. The dog employed for working 
them up should be very slow, and taught to beat the 
shrubbery in the most careful manner. 
One of the strangest characteristics of this bird 1s 
the fierceness with which a bevy will attack any of its 
members which may have been wounded. The unin- 
jured seem to forget their danger in their animosity 
against the unfortunate, for they will continue an 
assault upon a crippled comrade until several are laid 
low by the fowler. I have heard two or three men 
who are well acquainted with the habits of the birds 
say that they do not assail the wounded unless the 
sportsman is out of sight, and that they desist the 
moment they see him. I have never met a person 
who could satisfactorily explain this peculiar trait 
in their character, if I except a philosophic individual, 
who said it clearly proved that they were closely re- 
lated to some types of humanity, ‘‘ because they only 
attacked the helpless or those who could not retaliate.” 
The Valley, or meadow quail (Lophortyx californicus), 
is a resident of California, Oregon, and Washington Ter- 
ritory, but is not found east of the Rocky Mountains, 
unless it has been transported into the region recently. 
It is smaller than its mountain congener, but its plumage 
is equally as handsome, and its flesh as tender. It fre- 
quents hillsides, wooded gulches, chaparral, and the low 
