Morning journal and courier., 1893-10-10
ALBINo BIRDS AND HEasTs.
Some Queer Freaks of Nature in the
 Pacific SouthEest.

Paclnc Southwest.
 From the St. Louis Globe DamocratI
 YUMA, Ariz., Sept 13-White quail have been known here since 1877. That year one was seen in central California, and another was seen in the Vslls de las Palmas, fifty miles below San Diego, where it lived for three years and where many efforts were made to capture it alive, but in vain. Scores of people saw 1t. It was pure white, with eyes of pinkish hue, but not shade of any other color upoR 1t.
 In 1881 the writer saw five other white quail few miles further south, at the Real del Castillo. Four of these were pure white. One had feather In each wing that was of a dark brown color. The little band all had eyes of the same color as the other quail with which they ran. Their hsunts were found, 8 place cleared, and daily ground wheat, barley, rice, sago, cracked corn aud seeds were scattered where the quatl came for water. A hiding place was made in the thick brush adjoining, where the writer often hid in order to watch them as they came | daily for their rationa. Often would they 
 | watching them, unaware that they were | almost in reach of human hands. All at | tsmpts to snare, trap or catch them alive proved upaysiling, though sn old Mexican spent much time for two years in trying to trap them. Four years ago, on the | mountain side Of the great valley of the | Colorado, others were seen. All of these but two, one with pinkish eyes, and one with @ dark feather in each wing, resem- III k.-H- | brown. They were always together, and seemed to take the same interest in the new broods that the other quail did. I could never learn, though watched them carefully for months, whether the white | quail nested and raised their young or not. When living in 8 band of twenty-five or fifty, in the spring they seemed to care for the little ones the same. The quail of the Pacific coast, though about the size, isan entirely different bird from the "bob white" quail of the east.
 It Is said, and generally found to be true, that the rattlesnske is found to be of the same color as the ground, brush and rocks where 1t lives. In the coal-black losm of Ysllecitos I found them almost jet black, the diamond-shsped spots on their backs and sides being lined with | white. In the deep red-colored soils of the iron regions l found them red, the lines of the diamonds being jet black h the yellow clay hills they were as yellow as ochre, the lines on them being nearly red. On the peninsula of San Quentin, next to the Pacific, one hundred and twen. ty miles south of San Diego, I found 6 pure white rsttlesnake, with the exception of the very small, fine lines of black that marked the diamond spots on its body On the very brink of the ocean my mule suddenly stopped and refused to go on ol turn around. By her actions knew tha 8 rsttlesnake was near. I slighted, and ir the deer trail, just ahead of my mule there lay the snake, whiter than th, ocean's sands, in fact, almost as white al the snow. The air was cool, the snak, stupid. I cus forked stick, which , placed just behind Its head, took s silker cord and put It's moose around the neck 0