FOREST AND STREAM. 
I: April 19, 1902. 
case, tpo, that a bevy, flushing twenty or twenty-five 
yards away, will whirl so swiftly into the air that they 
seem to be standing on their tails, and will dart straight 
backward over the hunter's head, doing it all in less 
than a second. 
By the time he has turned about the bevy will be fifty 
yards away, a buzzing blue swarm, waving heavily from 
side to side, like a jacksnipe, but traveling three times 
as fast as the jacksnipe ever thought of going. 
These blue quail are the most difficult targets of any of 
the gallinaceous family for other reasons, too. The color 
is much in the favor of the birds. They are found only 
in the chapparal, and the dark green surface over which 
they skim makes them even harder to distinguish. 
The bird is larger than the brown quail, somewhat 
lighter in body proportionately, and has a greater wing 
spread which aids in its terrific speed. Its method of 
using its wings is identical with that of other members 
of the tribe. That is, it makes the same buzzing roar, 
only of greater volume. The slightest depression of a 
pinion, accompanied by a shift of the tail and head, will 
send it darting almost at right angles to its course. 
The blue quail, like the black-breasted quail of the 
hills, cares nothing at all for the neighborhood of man. 
There are plenty of fields in this part of Texas of corn, 
oats and peas, but they are inhabited by the brown quail 
only. The blue quail is never seen in them, breeding 
and living altogether in the chapparal, and the thicker 
the growth the better it is suited. 
All gallinaceous birds are swift of foot, but in propor- 
tion to its size this blue quail is the swiftest thing on two 
legs. They never hop, of course, but run like a man, 
placing one foot before the other. It is not especially 
long legged, but carries a good deal of weight in the 
shape of a plump breast and broad back, but on moder- 
ately clear ground, unless sufficiently frightened to take 
to its wings, its pace is remarkable. So great is its run- 
ning speed that it will lie to a dog only on rare occa- 
sions. Consequently in hunting it a pointer of great 
stanchness, which will come down on a scent and hold 
it until called off, is of no use at all. While he is "point- 
ing" the bevy will be fifty yards away and speeding like 
the wind. 
Nearly all pointers, when used against one kind of 
game, come in a little while to know all of its peculiari- 
ties, and they set their wits against the wits of the 
quarry. A pointer that made a business of heading off 
brown quail, huddling them and holding them huddled 
until its master's arrival, would be something of a 
curiosity in the East; but such a dog is common enotigh^ 
where the blue quail are found. I have seen a dog on 
striking the scent of a bevy, follow cautiously until it 
knew the birds were running, and then dash off to one 
side at full speed, making a half circle, and thus getting 
in front of the quarry, and there holding them until the 
hunter drew near enough to flush the birds. 
It will readily be seen, therefore, that hunting blue 
quail on foot is desperately fatiguing. Any man who 
hopes to get a respectable bag must go at a rapid walk 
nearly all day. When his dog shows signs that the birds 
are near, the animal must be urged forward with all speed, 
and the hunter must keep up with the dog, ready for the 
birds when they spring up, which they usually do in 
moderately open cover when the pursuers have ap- 
proached within twenty yards. 
The distance at which they flush must be added to the 
swiftness and eccentricity of their flight as a factor in 
making uncertain the result of shooting. Because of the 
active life it leads the bird has a great deal of vitality, 
and will stand a lot of killing. It carries, too, a thick 
coat of feathers so tough that those on the breast will 
check shot at sixty yards. A charge which would prove 
ordinarily fatal against brown quail is much too light 
for blue quail shooting. Better results are obtained from 
No. 6 driven by three and a half drams of quick powder 
in a 12 gauge gun, though some old hunters of the blue 
quail prefer No. 4's. 
There is no really good reason why the blue quail 
should be called a quail at all, though the naturalists 
have so classified it. It partakes, indeed, much more of 
the character of a diminutive pheasant, not only in the 
brilliance of its feathers, but in its contour and long tail. 
Whatever its family, however, there is no question that 
it is truly gallinaceous, having among other attributes 
the usual inability of that great tribe to' find its way out 
of a trap once it has walked into one. Knowing this, 
the Greasers of this section of Texas, who never use a 
shotgun, catch numbers of them by building small pens, 
like the turkey traps of the southern States, and baiting 
them with maize. 
As previously said, the numbers of the blue quail are 
kept down more by its comrades in the chapparral than 
by, man. The rattlers consider the bird a tidbit. The 
bob-tailed cat, the long-tailed cat, the leopard cat, the 
fox, the coyote, the brush wolf, the raccoon, are all its 
sworn enemies, while there are not less than twenty varie- 
ties of hawk in this region, to say nothing of owls galore. 
Against most of the winged foes the quail is protected 
by the tangle of undergrowth in which it lives; but there 
are at least two kinds of hawk that are not above lighting 
on the ground and pursuing the quail stealthily through 
the chapparal until the bevy is in an open space; and as 
for the owls, they hunt after dark almost as much on foot 
as on the wing. The eggs of the quail, too, are sub- 
ject to destruction by snakes, mice, and kangaroo rats. 
To the ornithologist the blue quail seems to be a very 
desirable bird, indeed, because of the beauty of its 
plumage. It is one of the handsomest of American 
feathered things, both in grace of outline and in coloring. 
It is taller than the ordinary quail, and its back is much 
broader; yet because of its length of tail it seems a slen- 
der fowl when running from the observer. The back is 
of a peculiar slaty blue — a delicate hue, yet intense — 
while the breast is beautifully mottled in black and white, 
and about the side feathers there lingers a suspicion of 
iris similar to that of the burnished dove. 
Altogether the blue quail is about one-fourth larger 
than its more sober brown cousin, and its flesh, when 
cooked, is exactly similar, having the same fine texture 
and snow-white breast meat. _ It is rather silent, perhaps 
having learned through centuries of dwelling in the deadly 
chapparal that it is best not to cry "Bob White!" as the 
brown quail does when mating, or to utter the continu- 
ous whistle which is the assembly note of the latter. Its 
only call is a faint, querulous cheep, which it makes 
sometimes when scattered in the undergrowth and 
anxious for a family reunion. W Bert Foster. 
On the Pacific Coast, 
Nordhoff, Gal., April 8. — Only five inches of rain 
had fallen here previous to Groundhog Day, and the out- 
look for good hunting and fishing next season had be- 
come ominous, as these could only follow a compara- 
tively wet winter that would grow forage and replenish 
the streams, but during March the record has been 
brought up to seventeen inches for the season, which is 
a little better than last year. An acquaintance who has 
lived here a long while had told me that no two seasons 
are just alike and one can hope for th& best to the end 
of May. Now the fields are green and the brooks full; 
California is a pretty country in which to live. 
The six forest reservations of this State, the San 
Gabriel, San Jacinto, Trabuco, Zaca Lake, San Ber- 
nardino and Santa Ynez, which are likely to become game 
preserves at some time and must be of interest to all 
hunters, the manzanita or other brush restored on many 
of the hills by careful supervision of government in pre- 
venting fire, larger growth saved from lumbermen, 
quickly showed the good effect of recent drenching. 
Many of the barrens have been seeded with timber. 
Some of the pines five years old bear cones. Pinus 
tuberculata and Torrey pine are deemed the most feasible. 
Tuberculata incloses some of its cones with wood and 
thus renders them indestructible by fire. The past win- 
ter has been a season of especial effort. Planting the 
seed, which is accomplished by means of common p : pe 
with sharp edge at one end and handle at the other, be- 
ing mostly over desolate mountain, is considered a weari- 
some job, and so lonely. 
Recent snow in the mountains drove large game to the 
valleys. Though our local mountain lion, a huge brute 
that has been seen in the Ojai Valley this winter, a cause 
for perturbation to those of us who sleep in tents, has 
not been in evidence lately, yet a great many deer have 
been flushed from some of the nearest canyons. Wild- 
cats have been numerous throughout the lower part of 
the State. Even the elite Pasadena had a large one shot 
nearly within corporate limits, and many other towns 
report these creatures as being killed nearby. Over in 
the Simi Valley, which is just south of the Ojai, a moun- 
tain lion drove a farm laborer from work recently, while 
in Santa Barbara county, directly to the north, a rancher 
caught a lion with steel-trap. Driven from the moun- 
tains by snow to the hiljs and settlements near Santa 
Maria, lions became very troublesome in that section, 
many of the cattle being destroyed by them, and a one- 
armed rancher who had six to his credit shot a speci- 
men that measured nine feet and a half. 
Better water than for years has induced large numbers 
of fish to ascend the streams this season, especially 
courses emptying into the Pacific north of Point Con- 
cepcion, which divides upper from lower California, and 
many steelhead trout, known also as salmon, are re- 
ported as running up the Santa Ynez, the first large river 
north of Santa Barbara, to spawn at headwaters, where 
they will make good summer fishing. The efforts of last 
season to stock the Santa Ynez with rainbow trout, which 
have resulted encouragingly, will be continued this fall. 
Salt water fishing along the south coast has been un- 
usually good this spring for perch, sheepshead, haddock 
and like kinds, notably over at Catahna Island where 
barracuda and yellowtail also have been plentiful, and 
almost coincident with the date early in March on which 
the president of the Tuna Club received notification of his 
being elected an honorary vice-president of the British 
Sea Angling Society, and the members of his club an 
invitation to call at headquarters if ever in London, enor- 
mous tuna began to bite with avidity in Avalon Bay, 
though a month earlier than in the ken of the oldest 
fisherman. 
The actual tuna season, indeed, had been thought to 
begin only as late as May, or when their chief food— 
the flying fish — would become plentiful, until Mr. J. J. 
Nestell, who had been watching the schools about the 
island all winter, hooked several large specimens by 
means of smelt bait, and though he failed to land any Of 
his catches, his efforts induced other sportsmen to try 
with various kinds of bait. Eventually Colonel John E. 
Stearns, of Los Angeles, by using a sardine for his lure, 
hooked and landed a 197-pound tuna, which for size is 
the third fish on record, the 251-pound tuna of Colonel 
C. P. Morehouse still being the largest specimen ever 
caught, and the 216-pound specimen of Mrs. E. N. Dick- 
erson being the second largest. The immense tuna just 
caught will be mounted by A. A. Cutter, with whom I 
once fished on a Florida lake, that he may ship it to 
his home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. 
Do not be alarmed lest I should attempt to relate an 
animal story nauseating with its perfervid sentiment, for 
deception of that kind has also proved wearisome to 
me, but I think an incident which occurred near Anaheim, 
down in Orange county, might be worth reporting for 
your paper. Two hunters down there, while out in the 
country nearby, discovered a lot of sightless coyote cubs, 
and upon bringing them to town, not knowing what 
other provision to make, gave the young wolves to a 
dog that she might assume maternal charge, which com- 
misary office she afterward accepted with a great deal 
of pleasure, even to deserting her rightful pups. The 
hereditary instincts of wolves may be affected by such 
care. 
Eastern editors who advocate bounty laws should take 
warning from the condition in which California is in- 
volved. The repeal of the five dollar bounty on coyote 
scalps has not effected instant relief. The Farmers' Ex- 
change Bank, of San Bernardino, has brought suit 
against the State for $2,365, said to be due its patrons, 
and the Producers' Bank has filed suit for $14,000 under 
a like claim. Many other banks hold claims assigned to 
them, and yet the ranchers in a number of counties assert 
that the coyotes have become a serious menace. Squir- 
rel legislation by counties proved ineffective. The 
temptation to colleet where tails brought the highest 
reward has been too alluring. The county of Colusa, 
which still offers two and a half cents, fears it will be- 
come the slump heap for all squirrels killed, now that 
so few of its neighbors offer a reward, and is using every 
means to have a uniform rate generally adopted. 
President H. T. Payne, of the State Game and Fish 
Protective Association, who has been making a compre- 
hensive tour through the State to organize assistant 
clubs, recently established a society at Oxnart, the large 
sugar town of Ventura county, with T. E. Walker as 
president, Sim Myers vice-president, and R. B. Whit- 
man, secretary. 
The Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles county, to 
whom an appeal was recently made by Professor C. F. 
Holder and other well-known anglers, to prohibit purse 
netting along the coast or about Catalina Island, have 
passed an ordinance prohibiting this kind of seining near 
any pier or within the waters of Avalon Bay. 
Two Sacramento sportsmen, while hunting on the river 
a short while ago, shot 173 wild geese in a day, for which 
deed they have been censured by one of the Los Angeles 
papers, and the ranchers up that way who have planted 
the tules along the river with grain, had to patrol their 
fields at night this winter to keep off wild ducks, A 
rancher told me that grain raising immediately along the 
San Juaquin River was seriously threatened a few years 
since by foraging geese, and that buying powder and shot 
for their destruction became rather a significant ex- 
pense. 
The Canadian Game Country. 
Editor Vorest and Stream: 
As the season is approaching rapidly it may be of in- 
terest if I give the names of outfitters and of the outfitting 
points in northern Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, as far 
as I know them. 
Montreal is a good outfitting point for a great part of 
the Province of Quebec. In the way of grocers and pro- 
vision supplies in general, Messrs. Fraser, Viger & Co., 
St. James street, are in a very large way of business, and 
understand thoroughly packing outfits for the bush. 
Mattawa, the station at which sportsmen bound for the 
Kippewa, Temiskaming, Temagaming and White River 
regions, leave the main line of the Canadian Pacific, is a 
good outfitting point, as here the Hudson's Bay Company 
has a branch; Colin, Rankin and L. H. Timmins & Co. 
also do a good deal in the outfitting line, and are able to 
provide anything from a birch bark canoe to a tin dip- 
per. There is also a good drug store in Mattawa. 
Temiskaming station, some thirty miles above Mattawa, 
is a small settlement containing a large, modern summer 
hotel, the Bellevue, but there is no outfitter there. A few 
miles further is Kippewa, the station at the foot of Kip- 
pewa Lake. Here the hotel accommodation is not so 
good, though it is quite fair, but Monsieur O. Latour is 
prepared to outfit sportsmen, with practically everything 
in ordinary kinds of food and outfit, and can procure 
guides and canoes for the great wilderness beyond. Steam- 
ers of the Lutnsden Line leave Kippewa for the Turtle 
and Red Pine portages, at one of which the canoes are 
usually put in the water, though at the Turtle portage a 
smaller steamer connects with the larger boat, and will 
take the sportsman and his outfit up the North River to 
the foot of Lake Ostoboining. 
The wharf of the Lumsden steamers, plying on Lake 
Temiskaming, is close beside the station and in proximity 
to the Bellevue Hotel. The steamer usually leaves about 
1 in the afternoon on certain days, which may be ascer- 
tained m advance by writing to the agent of the Lumsden 
Steamboat Line, Lumsden Mills, P. Q., or to any principal 
C. P. Ry. agent. Late in the afternoon, after a most lovely 
sail, the steamer will be off the mouth of the Montreal 
River. Many tourists and sportsmen land here with their 
guides and outfits, bent on a journey to Lake Temagaming 
by way of the Metabetchewan River, but it is better to go 
in by way of Haileybury for many reasons too long to be 
given here. About dusk, which is late in these latitudes, 
the steamer anchors off Ville Marie. Here there is an- 
other Hudson's Bay post, hotels and stores, but as the 
steamer will start in the morning at sunrise, few people 
buy their outfits here. Before 9 next morning the boat 
will have landed her passengers at Haileybury. Here Mr. 
Paul A. Cobbold keeps a large stock of everything neces- 
sary for wilderness travel, and guides and canoes will 
always be in readiness if he is written to in advance. 
There is a good hotel here, and even those who intend 
hunting in the White River district had better make this 
their outfitting point, because the mouth of the White 
River flows through an Indian reservation, where outfits 
such as sportsmen need are not obtainable. 
At Missanabie, Ontario, a station on the C. P. R., 675 
miles west of Montreal, there is a Hudson's Bay post. 
This station is on the height of land, and is usually se- 
lected as the jumping off place for the Hudson Bay trip by 
way of the Moose River. 
A number of fishermen make pilgrimages to the Ne- 
pigon, perhaps the most famous trout river in the world. 
Nepigon is on the main C P. R. line, 925 miles west of 
Montreal, and 65 miles east of Port Arthur. Mr. William 
McKirdy, general merchant and fishery overseer at Ne- 
pigon, carries a large stock of groceries. He will rent 
tents, canoes, camping outfits, blankets ; in fact, anything 
the fisherman could need, and will find good guides, the 
latter charging $2 a day if fit to take the stern, and $1.50 
a day if merely helpers. 
Any sportsman going to Manitoba for big game or wing 
shooting should put himself in the hands of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. This far-reaching corporation has its 
Canadian headquarters in Winnipeg, and there is noth- 
ing the hunter should take into the bush that the com- 
pany cannot furnish. Another great advantage in dealing 
with the Hudson's. Bay people in Winnipeg is that they 
are practical men themselves, know where the best game 
districts are, and can always find among their army of em- 
ployes, half-breed and Indian trackers inferior to none. 
In all these districts the sportsmen will find prices ap- 
proximately the same. A good head guide should be paid 
$2 a day, though there are a few who receive a little mors 
