Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-12-14
QUEER BIRDS AND BEASTS.
sorae Old Freaks of Nature In the Pacific
SouthWeaf

sonae Old Freaks Of Nature In the Pacific
Southwest.
A correspondence from Yuma. Ariz..
says: White quail have been known
here since 1877. That year one was
seen in central California, and another
was seen in the Vale 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 it.
1t was pure white, with eyes of pink
ish hue, but not a shade of any other
color upon it.
In 1881 the writer saw Eve other
white quail few miles further south,
at the Real del Costello Four of these
were pure white. One had feather
in each wing that was of dark
brown color. The little band all
had eyes of the same color
as the other quail with which they
rar Their haunts were found, a place
cleared. aud daily ground wheat, bar
ley. rice, sage. cracked corn, and seeds
were scattered where the quail came
for water. A hiding place was made
In the thick brush adioininy, where
the writer often hid in order to watch
them as they came daily for their ra-
tons Often would they come within
two or three feet of the one watching
them, unaware that they were almost
In reach of human hands. All attempts
to snare, trap, or catch them alive
proved unavailing, though an old Mex
1Gsn spent much time for two years in
ting to trap them. Four years ago,
- 1.-The mountain side of the great val
ley of the Colorado, others were
seen. All of these but two, one
with pinlish eyes, and one with
dark feather in each wing, re-
seInbled closely their associates in
gray or brown. They were al
ways together, and seemed to take the
same interest in the new broods that
the other quail did. / could never
learn. though 1 watched them careful
ly for months, whether the white
quail nested and raised their young or
not. When living in a 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, is an entirely different
bird from the "bob-whit quail of the
east.
1t is said, and generally found to be
true, that the rattlesnake is found to
be of the same color as the ground,
brush or rocks where it lives In the
coal-blacll loan of Vallecitos / found
them almost jet black, the diamond
shaped 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 dia-
monds being jet black. In 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 twenty
miles south of San Diego. / found a
pure white rattlesnake, with the eXcep-
ton of the very small. fine lines of
Hack that marked the diamond spots
on it's body. On the very brink of the
ocean my mule suddenly stopped and
refused to go on or turn around. BY her
actions l knew that rattlesnake
was near. 1 alighted, and in the
deer trail, just ahead of my
mule, there lay the snake, whittier
than the oceans sands, in fact, al
most as white as the snow. The air
was cool, the snake stupid. 1 cut a
forked stick, which 1 placed just be-
hind it's head. took a silken cord and
pat its moose around the neck of the
snake, and soon he was inside a tin can
which carried for the purpose. When
1 reached my camp at night 1 changed
the white beauty from his tin home in
to a jar of alcohol, to be looked at and
to become the wonder Of scores who
never before saw a whit e rattlesnake
1 have sse9znS that were ligh.
lzszao5 white, none just like
MY little beauty witHits five rattles
and button.
AS one goes south from Yuma o,
from San Quentin, on the Pacific, all OF
the birds change colors- The black
and yellow hawk are never seen. AL
the hawks, even the owls, change, OIL
are the color of the morning dove-a
purple or a grayish blue.
At Montague island, one of the love
lest places on the Pacific coast for ar
all-the-year-round resort for health OF
pleasure, white ducks, curlew. anG
snipe are found in great abundance
Some of these are pure white. Others
have one sometimes two. black or gray
feathers in each wing; n few have five
or six. The Colorado river turkeys are
white with a black feather or two il
each,wing.-Pittsburg Chronicle-Tele
grnph.