Game Birds and Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast Part 2

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ma.s.sENA QUAIL (Cyrtonyx montezuma)]

THE Ma.s.sENA OR MONTEZUMA QUAIL

(Cyrtonyx Montezuma)

The Ma.s.sena, or Montezuma quail, is a distinct genus from the blue quail family. In many respects it resembles the bobwhite in color, though far more fancifully marked. It is also nearly one-half larger, though in some parts of Arizona and in New Mexico there is a smaller species of the same genus known as fool quail. The Mexican bird is far from a fool, and although it roosts on the ground like the bobwhite, it is resourceful enough to take care of itself in a country where vermin of all kinds are very plentiful. Its range is from near the northern boundary south through the larger portion of Mexico.

The Montezuma quail is emphatically a gra.s.s bird and inhabits the gra.s.sy foothills and the cultivated fields, where it affords fine sport with a dog. It is very cosmopolitan as to climate, for it is found at alt.i.tudes of from five to six thousand feet, where considerable snow falls, as well as in the foothills of the hot, tropical valleys of the lowlands, and thrives equally well in all sections. It is a bird of peculiar habits. When startled by the approach of an enemy the bevy at once huddles together, where the birds remain motionless until they are approached to within from one to four feet, according to the cover they are in. If they think that they have not been seen or that the object of their alarm is going to pa.s.s by, there is not the slightest motion made by any one of them, but when they decide to take wing for safety every bird in perfect unison springs into the air to a height of about six feet and darts rapidly away. They are quick on the wing and seem able to carry away a good deal of shot. The flight generally is not more than one hundred yards, and when they alight they scatter well and will then out-hide any bird that lives. I have both ridden and walked, without a dog, for hours through a country where they were plentiful without seeing a bird, except where I chanced to nearly step upon them, yet with a dog I have found on the same grounds probably an average of fifteen bevies to the square mile. For work with a dog I prefer them to any bird I have ever hunted. They give out a strong scent, for points on bevies of from six to fifteen birds, made thirty to forty yards away are no uncommon occurrence. Then when you walk in front of your dog they never flush until you have almost stepped upon them. A scattered bevy will lie securely hid until each individual is flushed. Unlike the blue quail they never gather in large flocks, but always remain in single broods until broken up in the spring for nesting purposes.

=Color=--Male--The head of these birds have a very bizarre appearance whose strange black and white markings seem to have no more purpose or design than the black and white chalk marks on a clown's face. The head of the male is crested with semi-erectile feathers in the shape of a broad hood of dark yellowish brown color, falling about half way down the neck; groundwork of the back and of the wing and tail coverts is a dark ocher barred with a deep rich brown; breast and flanks are nearly black, dotted with large white spots, and from the throat to the vent is a stripe about five-eighths of an inch wide of a dark rich chestnut.

=Female=--The female, with the exception of the white dots on the breast and flanks is much the color of the female bobwhite.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nest is like that of the quail generally, simply a depression in the ground, carefully hidden away in some thick matted gra.s.s or bunch of brush, and generally higher up the hill-sides than they are found at other times. Eggs, white, and of a china appearance, and from ten to fifteen in number.

=Measurements=--While these birds are fully one-half larger than the blue quail, the very short tail makes their total length not over 8 to 9 inches; wing, 5 inches, and bill, 5/8.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOBWHITE (Colinus virginia.n.u.s)]

THE BOBWHITE

(Colinus virginia.n.u.s)

I have said that the voice of the bobwhite is heard in the land. This is true, for the clear notes of his little throat awaken the morning echoes from eastern Oregon to the islands of Puget Sound. This great little game bird, whose praise has been recounted in volumes of prose and sung in the rhythmic measures of countless lines of verse, is not a native of the coast, but he knew a good thing when he saw it. When he was turned loose in the Pacific Northwest he cast his bright little eyes about him and remarked to himself:

"This looks good to me. Bobwhite, get busy at once in raising big families and settle up your new domain."

And he has done it, for now the sportsmen of the Pacific Northwest have better bobwhite shooting than is to be found in any part of the eastern states.

The bobwhite roosts on the ground and always remains in single broods.

When startled they huddle together and flush in a bunch. They are good hiders and lie well to the dog. They are seldom found far from water and rarely in heavy brush. They are fond of stubble or corn fields and the gra.s.sy nooks along the fences. Many efforts have been made to acclimatize this species farther south in California but they have all proved failures on account of the dryer climate and the lack of insects during the rearing season of their young. They must have a damp climate where the vegetation remains green, thus furnis.h.i.+ng an abundance of insects during the early summer on which to feed their young. For until a bobwhite is nearly grown it lives almost entirely upon insects.

=Color=--Male--General color of the upper parts, light buff, marked with triangular blotches of brown; head and back of the neck, dark chestnut; forehead, gray; light stripe from above the eye pa.s.sing down the side of the neck; throat, white or very light buff, faintly bordered with dark brown or black; breast, light buff with the feathers tipped with brown; flanks chestnut mixed with black and white.

Female--Generally lighter, and without the white throat and light breast.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nests are rude depressions on the ground beneath a fence rail or fallen limb, or in a bunch of thick gra.s.s or brush.

The eggs number anywhere from fifteen to twenty and of a pure white color.

=Measurements=--Total length about nine inches; wing, 4-1/2 inches; bill, 5/8.

THE MASKED BOBWHITE

(Colinus ridgewayi)

A smaller species of the bobwhite, known as the masked bobwhite, were reasonably plentiful along the border of southern Arizona and south through the state of Sonora, Mexico. Like the typical bobwhite they were strictly a field and gra.s.s bird. But through the heavy pasturing of that section, together with a series of dry seasons denuding the whole country of such cover as would be necessary for their protection from hawks and vermin, they have become nearly if not quite extinct.

They differed from the eastern bobwhite in that the male had a black throat instead of a white one and a bright cinnamon breast. The female differed also in having a light buff throat, and generally of a lighter color.

Order, GALLINAE

Family, TETRAONIDAE

Subfamily, PERDICINAE

Genus Species Common Names Range ---------- ------------------ ----------------- --------------------- {Coast Range of {pictus Mountain quail {California from { {Monterey Bay north { {into Western Oregon.

{ { {Both sides of the Oreortyx {pictus plumiferus Mountain quail {Sierra Nevadas from { {Central Oregon south.

{ {Coast range of { {California from { {Monterey Bay south.

{ { {Peninsula of Lower { {California, {pictus confinis {Lower California {inter-grading in the {mountain quail {northern part with the {pictus plumiferus.

{Coast Range valleys {californicus Valley quail {of California from { {San Francis...o...b..y { {north into Oregon.

{ { {Both sides of the { {Sierra Nevadas from Lophortyx {californicus Valley quail {Central Oregon south.

{vallicola {Coast range valleys { {south from San { {Francis...o...b..y into { {Lower California.

{ { {Gambel quail {Southern Nevada, {gambeli { {Southeastern { {California, Western {Arizona quail {Arizona and Northern {Mexico.

{squamata Scaled quail {Southern Arizona { {and Northern Mexico.

Callipepla { {elegans Elegant quail {Southern Sonora, {Mexico.

{Montezuma quail {Southwestern Arizona Cyrtonyx {montezuma { {and south into {Messena quail {Mexico.

{ridgewayi Masked Bobwhite {Northwestern Sonora, { {Mexico.

{ Colinus { {Introduced and { {acclimated in {virginia.n.u.s Bobwhite {Was.h.i.+ngton and Oregon {and the islands {of Puget Sound.

THE WILD TURKEY

If there is any member of the feathered tribe ent.i.tled to the designation of royal game bird, it is the wild turkey. This magnificent bird, whose size and cunning challenges at once the admiration and the skill of the sportsman, is a native of North and Central America, and found in its wild state in no other part of the globe. The ocellated turkey, the Central American species, is even more gaudy in plumage than the peac.o.c.k, but as it is not found within the territorial scope of these articles, I shall leave its resplendent colors to scintillate in its own tropic sun, undescribed.

Of the North American turkeys the scientist recognizes four varieties.

The =Meleagris sylvestris= of the eastern states, except Florida, the =Meleagris sylvestris osceola= of Florida, the =Meleagris sylvestris elliotti= of the Rio Grande district of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico, and the =Meleagris gallopavo= of Arizona, New Mexico, part of Colorado, and west and south through the larger portion of old Mexico. It is of this last species that I shall write.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILD TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo)]

THE MEXICAN WILD TURKEY

(Meleagris gallopavo)