396 Quail and Grouse of the Pacific Coast 



plainly the superior of the other. You need 

 never inquire where he gets water, or even food, 

 for he can certainly go without water, and often, 

 so far as you can see, dispenses as readily with 

 food. Yet he is always happy and fat, and ready to 

 leave in the lurch the best dogs, the best legs, and 

 the best guns his native land can turn out. For 

 this reason many, at first, pronounce him a fraud. 

 But many more have an irresistible inclination to 

 try him again, an appetite that grows by what it 

 feeds upon, until every one who loves game that 

 can get away in neat style is ready to pronounce 

 him the leader in smartness of all our game-birds. 



There is something intensely human about the 

 way Gambel's partridge can toy with your bright- 

 est hopes and keep your wits on a tension as 

 severe as the most slippery of your beloved race. 

 And when you consider the small number that 

 with great effort you can bag out of the largest 

 flock, you will be again reminded of another two- 

 legged animal you may have hunted. It looks, 

 too, so humanly innocent before you are well 

 embarked in the chase. Seen from a wagon, it 

 often looks so mild and gentle that one unversed 

 in the tricks of game may say : — 



" I don't see how you can shoot so innocent a 

 thing." 



And it does often seem mere murder ; for the 

 flock may be massed and looking at you at that 



