Part 2

THE QUAIL

While the eastern half of the continent has but one genus of quail, the Pacific Coast, including Mexico, is well supplied with five genera and eighteen species, to which may be added four subspecies. Nine species of the genus, =Colinus=, however, and two of the genus, =Callipepla=, do not come into the United States.

Properly speaking we have no quail in America, all of our so-called quail being partridges, but the use of the word "quail" has become so common that these birds will, in all probability, be known as quail for all time. But whatever the name, they are resourceful beyond comparison, and gamy to the fullest degree; affording with dog and gun the most enjoyable of all out-door sport.

THE MOUNTAIN QUAIL

(Oreortyx pictus)

The mountain quails are the largest and most beautiful of all the American quails, though the least hunted and the least gamy. There is but one genus, with one species and two subspecies. Two of these inhabit the mountains of California and Oregon, and the third, the high ranges of the peninsula of Lower California. While most of the sportsmen of the Pacific Coast are conversant with the general character and coloration of the mountain quail, I believe but few of them have ever seen the more beautiful species that inhabit the San Pedro Martir mountains of Lower California.

The present species, given the English name of mountain partridge, by the ornithologists, and which he has taken for his type, is a small race found only on the Coast Range from the Bay of San Francisco north into Oregon, and, therefore, never reaches the high altitudes reached by its near relatives, the =Oreortyx pictus plumiferus=, to which the English name, plumed partridge, has been given. In fact, both of these varieties are plumed, though that of the latter is a trifle the longer. The fact that the plumed quail ascends the mountains each spring to heights of from five to eight thousand feet for nesting purposes, gives it a better claim to the name, mountain, than has the other variety.

The present species, the mountain quail, is generally found in the canyons and on the damp hill-sides where ferns are abundant. They have very little of the migratory habits of the other species, except when driven down in the winter by the snows. Their habits and general plan of coloration are so much like those of the other two species that I shall describe them all together, with the proper mention of wherein they differ.

THE PLUMED QUAIL

(Oreortyx pictus plumiferus)

The range of the plumed partridge is throughout the entire length of the Sierra Nevadas and of the coast range south of San Francisco bay into Lower California, where it intergrades with the San Pedro partridge, but it does not cross the Colorado river and enter Arizona or the mainland of Mexico. This species begins its migrations early in the spring, keeping close to the snow line until they reach altitudes as high as 7000 to 8000 feet, where they nest and rear their young. In the fall, just before the winter rains begin, they commence their migrations down again to the foothills, where they remain until the following spring. Unless driven by unusually heavy snows, they rarely descend lower than 2000 to 3000 feet above sea level.

SAN PEDRO MARTIR MOUNTAIN QUAIL

(Oreortyx pictus confinis)

The San Pedro partridge, so named by the ornithologist, is a resident of the San Pedro Martir mountains of Lower California, and ascends to a height of ten thousand feet, and is rarely seen lower than five thousand feet above the sea.

I want to say here that no work on ornithology that I have seen, describes the San Pedro partridge properly. Most likely this is the result of an examination of the intergrades only, for they do intergrade with the California species to the northward. The two species first mentioned have the plume from one and a half to two and a half inches long and nearly round in form. The plume of the San Pedro partridge is flat, about three-sixteenths of an inch wide and from three and a half to four and a half inches long. The plume of the other varieties is erectile, but that of the San Pedro denizen is soft and falls down the side. In all species both sexes are alike, with the exception that the plume of the female is generally a trifle the shorter; but this can not always be relied upon to distinguish the sex.

Generally speaking there is not much sport in hunting the mountain quail, but I have at times had a bevy scattered in ferns, and in such cases had very good sport with them with a dog, and found them to lie very well. They are about a half larger than the valley quail, and as a table bird much more succulent.

=Color=--Top of head, back of neck and breast, an ashy blue, darker on the back of the neck than the breast; back and wings, inclining to olive brown, in the Coast species with a slight reddish tinge; abdomen and flanks, rich chestnut barred with black and white; under tail feathers, black; entire throat, reaching well down onto the breast, rich chestnut, bordered with white; chin, white; bill, black. The two California species have two round, black plumes falling gracefully over the back of the neck, but erectile when excited. These plumes will vary from one and a half to two and a half inches in length. The Lower California species have two flat, black plumes about three-sixteenths of an inch in width and from three and a half to five inches long. Both sexes are alike in all species.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nest, like that of all gallinaceous birds, is a depression on the ground, hidden among a bunch of bushes or under a log, surrounded by a few dry leaves. The number of eggs will average about a dozen, rather oval in shape and of a light ochreous color.

=Measurements=--Length (see diagram), will average about 10 inches; wing 5-1/2, bill about 5/8 of an inch.

THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY QUAIL

(Lophortyx californicus vallicola)

There are two varieties of the California valley quail. They are distinguished not so much by the slight difference in color as in the very marked difference in their habits.

As with the mountain quail the ornithologist has taken the wrong bird for the type, making the larger race the subspecies. To the species (=Lophortyx californicus=) inhabiting the foothills of the Coast range north of the bay of San Francisco and into western Oregon, the ornithologist has given the English name California partridge. This species is a lover of damp places and rank growths of underbrush and ferns. The subspecies (=Lophortyx californicus vallicola=), to which has been given the name valley partridge, ranges from central Oregon throughout the great valleys of California, the foothills of the western slope of the Sierras, both sides of the Coast range south from San Francisco bay and throughout the peninsula of Lower California. Like the mountain quail it does not cross the Colorado desert into Arizona or the mainland of Mexico. Nevertheless it has a wider range than any other one species of game bird.

Of all the game birds of America the California valley quail is the most resourceful and characterized by the greatest cunning. Having hunted these birds for upward of fifty years and practically throughout their entire range, I freely give them credit for knowing more tricks and being able to concoct more schemes of deception than all the rest of the =tetraonidae= combined, and this resourcefulness has led to most of the false statements regarding their behavior and gameness. It has been said by writers, who should know better, that a dog is no use in hunting them because of their disposition to run. Any bird with more game than a fool-hen will either flush or run where there is no undercover in which to hide, and the valley quail being so often found in dry, open places or chaparral devoid of undercover, will either flush or run until it finds suitable hiding grounds.

But give the valley quail cover in which to hide and it can and will out-hide any game bird except the Montezuma quail of Mexico. In fact it is this remarkable faculty of hugging the ground until it is almost stepped upon that has led, more than anything else, to its false reputation as a runner. The man who hunts the valley quail without a dog--and most of its detractors do--can walk through a patch of good cover with a hundred birds scattered in it for an hour or more and not get up a half dozen. Unlike the bobwhite or the Montezuma quail of Mexico, the valley quail bunches in the fall. These bunches will contain anywhere from two or three broods to two or three hundred individuals, and sometimes even thousands, and they seem to understand that the larger the bunch the greater the necessity for avoiding pursuit. They are fond of the open places and the bare hill-tops and when driven from these, being a brush bird, they very naturally seek the brush. If there is no grass or suitable undercover in which to hide they will continue to work their way through it or double back on their pursuers until hiding places are found, when they will hug the ground so closely that even a good dog must pass reasonably near to them before he will detect their scent. The man who hunts without a dog generally passes through the cover into which his bevy has settled, continues his walk for a mile or more, then sits down, filling the air with a sulphurous streak of strong sounding words as he curses the game little birds for running, while the resourceful little fellows, closely hid, laugh over the security a false reputation has given them.

There has been a great deal written about the ability of quail to withhold their scent, and many theories have been advanced. That all game birds do lose their scent temporarily while passing rapidly through the air I believe to be true, and the valley quail has this faculty strongly added to its other resources. This too often deceives the inexperienced man even when hunting with a dog. Where birds have been flushed into good cover and can not be raised, sit down and take a smoke, if you like, for twenty minutes or half an hour, then cast in your dog and you will be rewarded with point after point, where before your dog failed to detect the slightest scent. After years of experience with all of the upland birds of the United States and half of Mexico, I do not hesitate to pronounce the California quail the chief of them all in gameness, in resourcefulness, and in its general adaptability to furnish the highest form of upland shooting. But California quail can not be hunted successfully without a good dog.

The food of the adult California quail, according to an investigation made by the United States Agricultural Department, through the examination of the stomachs of 619 birds, taken during every month of the year, except May, consists of 97 per cent vegetable and 3 per cent animal matter, the vegetable varying according to the seasons. During the rainy season, when green vegetation is abundant, grasses and foliage of various kinds form fully 80 per cent of the entire food, while in the dry season it forms barely one per cent. In the dry season weed seeds form as high as 85 per cent of the food; one stomach examined containing 2144 seeds of various kinds. During the harvesting season when there is a good deal of grain on the ground, and during the sowing season, grains form about 6 per cent of the diet. During the season when wild blackberries, elder and other wild berries are ripe, these, with a few grapes and a little of some other fruits, form 23 per cent of the food.

During the first week of the life of the young birds, insects of various kinds make up 75 per cent of their food, but by the time they are a month old their animal food is no greater than that of the old birds.