38 GAME BIBDS OF CALIFORNIA 



October 12, 1885: "Our efforts in that direction have resulted in failures, 

 except as I will state. Mr. Estee, some years ago, placed two dozen bob-whites 

 on his farm in Napa County. Every precaution was taken to protect them 

 from hunters, and they were carefully looked after. They all soon disappeared, 

 the theory being that they were destroyed by vermin. I learn that last 

 February some of the same kind of birds were placed on the farms of Mr. 

 Miller, Mr. Samuel Eea, and Mr. J. P. Sargent, along Carnedero Creek, near 

 Gilroy. It is said they have bred the past season, and their numbers mate- 

 rially increased. The experiments, however, from the length of time can hardly 

 be called a success. . . . Some bob-whites were placed on General Bidwell's 

 place near Chico, but I understand they have disappeared also. Bob-whites 

 roost on the ground and are therefore unable to protect themselves from the 

 vermin which is so plentiful everywhere in California" (Belding, 1890, p. 8). 



Between 1904 and 1906 fifty dozen Bob-white were brought into 

 the state by the California Pish Commission. Two shipments came 

 from Michigan, one from Massachusetts, one from Alabama, and the 

 fourth from Texas. The birds were liberated in lots of a dozen each 

 in a number of widely separated localities. In only one section, the 

 Del Paso Kancho, near Sacramento, did the birds increase. Here two 

 dozen were liberated and a special effort was made to protect them by 

 killing off the vermin and establishing a close season of a number of 

 years (Calif. Fish Comm., 1907, pp. 65-66). George Neale reports 

 that during the first few seasons after they were introduced a number 

 of nests were found. The increase was but temporary, for after four 

 years not a single Bob-white remained in this locality. Attempts to 

 propagate the Bob-white at the State Game Farm likewise failed. 



Chinese Quail 



Beginning about 1900 large numbers of Chinese Quail {Coturnix 

 japonica) were imported for restaurant purposes. Between 1901 and 

 1903, 16,609 of these quail were brought into the United States. 

 Because the birds were used as a cloak for the sale of native game, the 

 importation of the birds into California was stopped by law. Before 

 this law went into effect, large numbers of the birds were purchased 

 by private breeders and were planted in various parts of the state. 

 None of the birds are known to have survived. In 1903, a number 

 of confiscated Chinese Quail were liberated by the Commission, and 

 these, too, were seen but a short time. In 1904, ten dozen were con- 

 fiscated from a Chinese restaurant and liberated in Mendocino County 

 on a large tract of land where every protection was accorded wild 

 game (Calif. Pish Comm., 1904, p. 67 ; ihid., 1907, p. 65). No encour- 

 aging reports were received, and there is no evidence that the birds 

 here or elsewhere survived the first year. 



