Sept., 1903 | 
THK CONDOR 
115 
they obviate by squatting: the Gambel partridge, chestnut-bellied scaled quail, the 
European partridge and others; and Mearns quail has this same thing only to a 
greater extent. He chooses the densest and deepest brush cover for a retreat, and 
like the meadowlark keeps his wonderfully graded back toward the danger-side. 
The illustration*' from Mr. Bailey’s photograph shows how easily he becomes in- 
conspicuous by this simple trick, and it is fair to attribute his black ventral mark- 
ings to other causes than that of direct protection when offset by the facts of his 
chosen cover and the remarkably protective character of his upper parts. And 
like many other sharply marked creatures, the very contrasts which look so con- 
spicuous when seen in the hand, isolated from the sharp lights and shadows of 
the natural environment, serve to so ‘cut up’ the creature that in nature all semb- 
lance of a bird is lost; the head is cut from the body, and then reduced to a non- 
committal jumble, which is one with w 
lies beyond. 
In the gulch near where we were camped 
was a lovely little mountain brook, coming 
from a seep-basin high in the mountains, 
tumbling as a thread-like fall from a tall cliff 
at the head of the gulch, a mile above camp. 
In the canyon were noble jack oaks, gnarly 
arbutus trees, and a few nut-studded pines, 
and upon the steep talus slope stood a splen- 
did grove of tall conifers. This place was 
naturally the center of bird life, and here we 
found for the first time within our borders 
the Couch jay (^Aphelocoma sieberi couchi). 
Stephens whip-poor-wills {A?iirostomus v. 
macroDiystax'), and band-tailed pigeons 
{Cohimba fasciata) were here, and numbers of 
‘carpi nteros,’ the noisy and sociable ant-eating 
woodpeckers {Melajierpes formicivorus^. Oc- 
casionally a big blue-throated hummer {Cosli- 
gena clemencice) would come skittling up the 
gulch, for all the world like a little swift, 
uttering his sharp little squeak every two 
seconds. Perhaps he would alight on the 
dead lower twigs of a tlrooping pine branch, and jumble his squeaks together 
into a kind of little song: more likely he woald zip by like a bullet and disappear 
up the gulch. These and many other rare and interesting birds made me temporarily 
neglect the quail, after a few more failures, and Heft the Chisos without a single bird. 
But my hope was yet young, and as we moved up toward the Davis mountains 
I had visions of a brace. These, like the first, failed to materialize, as did those 
which I harbored for the Sacramento in New Mexico. 
Late in the summer we left Carlsbad, New Mexico, with our outfit, heading 
for the Guadaloupe mountains, the “Walloopias” of the natives, for our last 
mountain work of the season. Up we went from the Pecos desert into the 
j uniper-'^lad foot-hills, where we camped our first night. In the morning I looked 
around, and was surprised at what I saw. Indeed, I rubbed my eyes to see if I 
o. For the use of this and the photograph of the Chisos Mts. acknowledgements are due to Mr. Vernon Bailey, 
and the Biological Survey. — ED. 
