108 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
man is a natural butcher. It takes wild things some 
time to realize that there are no gentle men, and obvi- 
ously this lesson is learned more slowly by birds or 
animals living in places unfrequented by man than in 
regions where he is more numerous. Even the ruffed 
grouse, which, in thickly settled regions, is the wisest, 
wildest and most wary of birds, is in some localities so 
unafraid that the passer-by who will tie a noose of cord 
on the end of a six-foot pole, may pass the loop over 
the bird’s head and drag it from its perch. 
The Mearns quail is reported to be less graceful in 
carriage and less elegant in shape than some of its rela- 
tives which inhabit the same region, but may not this 
be only another way of stating that it is unsuspicious 
and not easily alarmed? The wariest of gallinaceous 
birds, if ignorant of the presence of an enemy, carries 
its feathers more or less loosely, walks with a short 
neck, and has a rounded back, thus presenting an ap- 
pearance very different from the same bird when it 
is startled or alarmed and about to take to flight. 
Then the neck is stretched upward, the bird stands high 
on its legs, all its feathers are pressed close to its body, 
its crest is raised, and it stands there alert and pre- 
pared to dart away at a second’s warning. 
In Texas this bird is known as the black quail, or 
the black-bellied quail, while, as said, in Arizona, on 
account of its gentle nature it is called fool quail. It 
is said to frequent rocky ravines heading well up into 
the mountains, but of recent years has come to the 
ranches, and is found feeding in the green fields. Cap- 
