134 
THE COiNDOR 
Vol. XIV 
(langei of exterminating the quail on these dry ridges, where there is so much 
prickly pear cactus, in which they take refuge : and as long as the breeding- 
season is protected no diminution in the autumn and winter quail shooting will 
ever be observed. I find that even on the valley farms of Alameda County 
the quail breed in the willows, and flocks of from 50 to 100 maintain them- 
selves in many of the orchards, and have done so ever since the occupation of 
the region by Americans, though, of course, shot down to a mere handful each 
winter.” 
In his report on the “Birds of the Death V^alley Expedition,” Fisher says 
of the valley quail: “Throughout the San Joaquin Valley Mr. Nelson found it 
comnion about ranches, along water courses, or near springs. It was especially 
abundant at some of the springs in the hills about the Temploa Mountains and Car- 
rizo Plain. In the week following the expiration of the closed season two men, 
])ot-hunting for the market, were reported to have killed 8400 quail at a solitary 
s])ring in the Temploa Mountains. The men built a brush blind near the spring, 
which was the only water within a distance of twenty miles, and as evening 
approached, the quail came to it by thousands. One of Mr. Nelson’s infor- 
mants who saw the birds at this place, stated that the ground all about the 
water was covered by a compact body of quails so that the hunters mowed 
them down by the score at every discharge.” This was in 1893. Last summer 
and in April of this year parties from the Museum of Wrtebrate Zoology of 
the University of California visited the same general locality, reporting that 
either none or but very few were to be seen at the watering places. 
These quotations give a fair idea of the point of view of competent men 
twenty years ago. It is needless to call attention to the fact that in the very 
places mentioned by these men, conditions have changed and that quail are 
not nearly as numerous as they were twenty years ago. In many places in the 
state, nevertheless, where there is little intensive cultivation, the protection 
afforded them the past few years has allowed them to hold their own and in 
some places to increase. 
Having now pointed out the fact that quail have greatly decreased in numbers 
in some parts of the state and have apparently increased in numbers in other 
])arts. let us pass on to a discussion of the factors governing the increase and 
decrease of birds in general and of quail in particular. Professor S. A. 
h'orbes was one of the first to point out the importance of studying the natural 
order as a whole, and understanding the disturbances to which it is subject. 
In a paper entitled “On Some Interactions of Organisms,” he says: “While 
the natural order is directed to the mere maintenance of the species, the necessities 
of man msually require much more. They require that the plant or animal should 
be urged to superfluous growth and increase, and that all the surplus, variously 
and widely distributed in nature, should now be appropriated to the supply of 
human wants. From the consequent human interferences with the established 
order of things numerous disturbances arise. — many of them full of danger, 
others fruitful of positive evil. To avoid or mitigate the evils likely to arise, 
and to adapt the life of his region more exactly to his purposes, man must 
study the natural order as a whole and must understand the disturbances to 
which it has been subject. Especially he must know the forces which tend to 
the reduction of these disturbances and those which tend to perjDetuate or ag- 
gravate them, in order that he may reinforce the first and divert the second.” 
There are at least six factors that have a direct influence on the numbers 
of any species of animal, the importance of each varying greatly according to 
