The Valley- Quail of California 381 



One of the great bands often allows you to 

 come within sixty or seventy yards on the edge 

 of the plain, and then often moves like an army. 

 First the pickets are driven in, running into, or 

 flying over, the main body, to alight in front. 

 Then part of the main body moves safely out of 

 reach with every swift leg moving in concert. If 

 the danger is imminent the whole moves ; some- 

 times as a whole, shifting to the left or right, or 

 going straight ahead, or reversing with a quick 

 wheeling motion ; or sometimes in platoons which 

 run in all manner of flank and oblique movements, 

 but with heads well up and all in line and orderly 

 array that would charm a drill sergeant. Unless 

 pressed too closely, they rarely take wing, though 

 a few of the birds may flutter upon stones for a 

 better inspection of the intruder, and some of the 

 rear guard may fly over the head of the main 

 column. But when you come too near there is 

 a roar of wings that often rivals the distant 

 thunder, and the whole flock is in air in a myriad 

 lines of curling, twisting, darting, and chirping blue. 



At about one hundred and fifty yards, and often 

 less, the flock alights with every leg in rapid 

 motion the instant it touches earth. If you are 

 not expeditious, there will be nothing within a 

 hundred yards of that spot by the time you arrive, 

 and if you are a trifle too slow the whole hunt 

 begins again anew. In this way a flock may lead 



