228 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
week old, rose up almost from between the feet of the foremost mule, and 
after flying a few yards dropped down, and in a twinkling were hidden 
beneath the herbage. At the moment of discovery, the parent bird 
rose up, and then, tumbling back helplessly to the ground, imitated so 
successfully the actions of a wounded and disabled bird that, for a 
moment, I thought she must ha ve been trodden upon by one of the mules. 
Several of the men, completely deceived, attempted to catch her, when 
she gradually fluttered off, keeping all the time just beyond the reach of 
their hands, till she had enticed them a dozen yards away, when she 
rose and was off like a bullet, much to their amazement” (1875, pp. 
443-444). 
In the Huachuca Mountains Mr. F. C. Willard had the good fortune 
to discover a family at the nest. As he says, “the male sat in the 
entrance of the nest with his head ducked down, while from between one 
wing and his back a little striped head protruded. Stooping I looked 
into the nest and there sat the female with one small chick on her back 
and a row of them poking their heads out all around her” (1913, p. 227). 
Though at times wild, the Quail, as instanced by Mr. Ligon and 
Mr. Henshaw, are at other times surprisingly unafraid. Mr. Ligon 
came upon a late family—two parents and six almost grown young— 
October 25, 1915, when he was riding up the gorge of Beaver Creek. 
As he writes, “I saw one get up at my horse's side. I stopped and all 
got up and slowly walked out to the rocks and bushes a few feet away, 
uttering low notes of alarm. None flew” (MS). Mr. Henshaw had 
a still more surprising though more easily explained experience, for as he 
writes:“Of the several quail known to me the ‘fool quail' of New Mexico 
and Arizona seems to depend for his safety upon his protective coloration 
more than any other. As an example I recall one that squatted on a log 
near the trail our pack train was following, and so closely did the colors 
of his back and sides harmonize with his surroundings that twelve or 
fifteen pack mules and horsemen passed by him without seeing him or 
disturbing his equanimity in the least. He seemed so completely 
petrified by astonishment at the novel sight as to be incapable of motion, 
and he was so close to us that one might have touched him with a riding 
whip. While the bird was no doubt actuated to some extent by curi¬ 
osity, he depended for his safety, I am sure, upon the nice way in which 
his plumage matched his surroundings, and upon his absolute im¬ 
mobility. No one saw the bird but myself, and when the train had 
passed I had to almost poke him off his perch before he consented to fly. 
Whoso calls this the ‘Fool Quail' writes himself down a bigger fool than 
the bird, who has been taught his lesson of concealment by Mother 
Nature herself” (MS). 
Additional Literature.—Swartii, II. S., Condor, XI, 39-43, 1909. 
