12 



THE GAME BREEDER 



California, where it meets the Valley 

 partridge in San Bernardino County, 

 the Colorado desert proving an effective 

 barrier to its extension farther west- 

 ward. It is also found in southeastern 

 Utah, and was introduced at Fort Union 

 in northern New Mexico. It also 

 crosses our southern border and is a 

 resident of northwestern Mexico. 



Any kind of a locality within its dis- 

 persion seems to be perfectly satisfac- 

 tory to this bird ; whether it be a dry and 

 sandy stretch blistering in torrid heat, or 

 a place rocky and bare of leafy covering, 

 or tracts hidden by the densest and most 

 impregnable thickets — they are all the 

 same to Gambel's quail. From my ex- 

 perience, however, in hunting them, I 

 should say if they had any choice of lo- 

 cality it lay between dense clumps, mat- 

 ted with vines and bristling wih thorns, 

 into and through which nothing living 

 could penetrate save themselves, or 

 mountain sides that ascend in a direct 

 line and which are covered with jagged 

 stones and slippery boulders, over 

 which the light-footed birds pass with- 

 out effort, stopping occasionally to look 

 down and jeer at the struggling, panting 

 mortal below who is striving to conquer 

 the ascent, and when the pursuer had ar- 

 rived at the summit, the quail, it would 

 be discovered, had run to the edge of 

 another canon, into which they flew at 

 the first appearance of the sportsman, 

 and began the ascent from below on the 

 opposite side, leaving the hunter gazing 

 at them across the great gulf that rolled 

 between. If there is another species of- 

 game bird more tantalizing and vexa- 

 tious in its manners, and more utterly 

 lost to all the finer feelings that should 

 compel it to conform to the recognized 

 rules that govern field sports, I happily 

 do not know of it, and have no wish 

 to meet with it. if existing. 



This species is dependent upon water, 

 never going far away from brook or 

 spring, and its presence is a pretty sure 

 indication that a supply of the necessary 

 fluid is near at hand. Gambel's quail is 

 generally very abundant in the localities 

 it frequents, and the coveys of trim, gay- 

 looking birds are seen daily running 



about chasing insects, dusting themselves 

 in the roads or sandy spots, and uttering 

 all the while a soft low queet or zuoeet. 

 When alarmed, they commence to run, 

 following some leader in outstretched 

 line, or else in bunches when each looks 

 out for himself, dodging behind every 

 bush and stone, and generally striving to 

 reach some dense thicket, or some rocky 

 hillside up which they climb with surpris- 

 ing rapidity- It is, at first, almost im- 

 possible to make them take wing, and 

 they will only fly when compelled to do 

 so by their pursuer appearing right among 

 them, and then they proceed but a short 

 distance before alighting, and commence 

 to run again. If the ground permits the 

 covey to be followed rapidly and contin- 

 uously, and the birds find that running 

 is of no avail, they can then be flushed, 

 and they fly swiftly, generally on a level 

 about six or eight feet above the ground, 

 but in a curving direction, not straight 

 forward for any distance, and if the 

 covey becomes well scattered the birds 

 will sometimes lie well and flush singly, 

 but this is exceptional, and a state of 

 affairs only arrived at by a long, per- 

 sistent and fatiguing pursuit. I imagine 

 that most of the birds that are obtained 

 by the gun are shot upon the ground. 

 Very unsportsmanlike, but after one 

 learns their tricks and their manners the 

 natural feeling of denunciation against 

 such a practice that is possessed by all 

 lovers of dog and gun, somehow does 

 not seem to be so easily aroused in those 

 who have followed these birds for food 

 or recreation. If, however, the sports- 

 man fails to obtain either of these, there 

 is one thing he does get without stint — 

 exercise. 



Gambel's partridge bears well great 

 extremes of temperature and is appar- 

 ently quite as comfortable when the 

 thermometer indicates 100 degrees in 

 the shade, as in the keen, rarified air 

 that blows around the mountain tops at 

 an elevation of 8,000 or 9,000 feet. 

 When the heat is as great as that men- 

 tioned above, this species seeks the bot- 

 tom of the canons, or the banks of the 

 creeks, and keeps in the shade of the 

 dense thickets usually found in such sit- 



