Nov., 1903 I 
THK CONDOR 
147 
After a few minutes of the closest inspection, he repeated the note “cuh” several 
times slowly in a low guttural tone, perhaps to tell his mates that the coast was 
clear. Nothing in his actions had appeared to me extraordinary, as I have fre- 
quently seen one lone quail perched in full view, when I have been hunting. 
Soon after he had uttered the low notes, I noticed several quail coming out 
from the brush fence at different points near where the finst one had, but the most 
noticeable thing about their advent was that they were perfectly fearless, slowly 
walking around picking up gravel or eating grass and clover leaves. Some were 
even fluffing out their feathers or scratching their heads with their claws, while 
two lazy ones rolled over on their sides and had a dust bath. None of them were 
alert and to see them there an observer would believe that hawks and men never 
existed to torment them. Gradually they kept on coming through the brush fence 
until I counted thirty-seven in the bunch. 
All this time the lone bird at S had remained intensely alert but silent; not 
even the rippling conversational notes of his mates (which .sound so much like the 
gurgling of a tiny stream in its rocky bed) had disconcerted him. With n:y glass 
I could see his brown eye roving everywhere, now up, now down, never appar- 
ently longing for the clover his mates were eating but always watchful. The con- 
trast between this lone bird so alert and his fellows close by , free and light-hearted, 
as if they were out on a vacation, was a puzz.le to me. 
Slowly the bunch moved forward in the direction of the dotted line in the 
sketch, now wddely separated only to gather closer together a little farther on, 
all the time with most of their plumed heads bent low among the clover roots, 
seeking their favorite dainties the clover seeds, while now and then a few would 
linger behind, taking a bath in the warm dust. 
Overhead a few fleecy clouds drifted lazily acro.ss the sky, and occasionally 
the lightest breeze shook out the crimson tassles of the budding oaks, or passed 
silently across the swirling waters of the ditch. .A.11 the world seemed at peace. 
Numerous in.sects droned in harmony from everywhere and the (juail still 
moved along. 
When they reached the point C in the sketch, one of their number ran to the 
point marked S and perched himself on the top of a large pile of brush at that 
point, d'liis was done silently and without any note or call from the lone bird or 
from any of the feeding birds, only the low murmuring notes of the flock breaking 
the silence, as they slowly followed along the course indicated by the dotted line 
in the sketch. After a few minutes the quail in the dead peach tree quietly joined 
his mates on the ground, while .the bird on the brush pile remained alert and 
almost motionless. 
Probably a (juarter of an hour had elapsed between the appearance of the 
first and .second watchful birds at their post. At the point C the flock was only 
twenty-three feet from me by actual measurment, the ditch intervening between 
us. From this point they slowly worked up the hillside through a lot of tall dead 
weeds, close to the brush pile at S. 
Far off on the edge of the woods the resonant drumming ol a woodpecker 
came to me faintly, while the scream of a quarrelsome blue jay caused the lone 
quail to move his head quickly in that direction. 
About this point the birds curved their course ba^k towards the brush fence 
and I began to wonder whether some other bird would repeat the previous pecu- 
liar actions, whicli by this time began to have an appearance of design and not 
mere chance, but no such thi ng occurred and the bunch moved forward quietly 
for some few minutes until they came to the point marked E in the sketch, where 
