The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-12-25
Something About the Valley
Quail Of the Pacific Slope.
JOHN L. In BUSINESS.
The big Fellow" Opens a Hos
tely in the Windy City.
The Terrible Swede" After
Skating Championships.

HunLlnS tn6 valley or top KNOT guam Oh
California.
was stopping at San Diego at the
time, and as San Diego county had been
said to contain more quails than the
same AGRA in any other portion of the
United States, and as 1 had never
seen the famous top knot quail l was, of
course. anxious for turn at the swiftest
bird that flies.
had no guide. but had been instruc-
ted where to go by that famous wing
shot, Martinez Chick. the champion of
the Pacific coast, and at 8 o'clock a. H.,
accompanied by a Spanish friend from
Colorado and my eastern broken setter,
l boarded d dummy train, bound for Pa
citic Beach, sea coast resort of boom
days, about ten miles northwest of San
Diego.
VIII en- we left the car twas with some
misgiving that l viewed the sage brush
covered mesa land about us, for it GER
tainly did not look like suitable place
for birds, (of course l was thinking of
eastern BIRDS but Chick had told me the
top knots were there, and Chick was an
authority that could not be disputed, SO
loading our guns we cast off the dog and
made tor the foot hills.
We had not gone far when the poor
animal came whining to my feet. She
was in a pitiable condition, indee d.
Having attempted to dislodge a number
of cholla balls Ia species OF cacti) from
her feet, the barbed and poisonous thorns
had been imbedded in her lips and
| tongue, causing her intense agony.
After had, with some difficulty. re-
moved the thorns, the dog, though bleed
ing from her wounds. galloped of with
that easy swing characteristic of the
| high bred bird dog, and soon stiff
| fened out to a point at the edge of a
bunch of mesquit
Lad wagered bottle of sherry with
my companion that 1 would score kill
on the first California quail at which
fred, and | walked forward to my dogs
point with perfect confidence that l
i would win.
had not advanced far when there was
/ an electrifying whirr and no less than
fifty birds arose and went skimming
over the top of the sage brush at speed
that no bird but the California valley
quail can attain Well. the result may
be imagined. 1 shot two large holes in
the atmosphere, and the quails went on.
My friend shouted wine on you" and
the dog looked disgusted.
The birds scattered nicely in a canon.
which is something rather unusual for
them to do, and the old dog soon had a
point on a single, which l succeeded in
downing. l raised number of the
missed some and killed some, and few
of them took on such rapid gait that 1
did not attempt to stop them.
Other coveys were found and within
an hour my supply of ammunition-S5
rounds-was exhausted, and with but 81
birds / started home from my first Cali
fornia quail hunt
The California valley quail resembles
the Bob White of the eastern and south
ern states in name and size only It's
habits are entirely different.
For instance, the birds of the Pacific
coast, after the young are grown, spack"
or band together in vast flocks like the
startling red winged black bird. These
bands are said to sometimes number
! thousands. though the largest flock l
ever saw contained not more than two
| hundred.
1t is very unusual for them to scatter
when first flushed, as the eastern quail
almost invariably does. They generally
fly in a body up some convenient canon
and alight in the midst of an impenitra-
BILE thicket of mesquit or cactus, from
where it is useless to attempt to raise
them.
Experienced hunters make all the noise
possible when a covey is first flushed in
order to, if possible, scatter the birds in
the sage brush, and it depends on this
ruse being successful whether any shoot
ing will be had after the first rise
There is no limit to the number of
birds to be found in San Diego county.
Martinez Chicky averaged 105 per day
for every day he was out in the winter OF
1928. But to hunt California quails
successfully requires the hardest of
work, and when an eastern sportsman
has succeeded in baggir g dozen or two
of the top knots he makes up his mind
that, after all, there is more real salts
faction in hunting the bob-white of the
east. E. B. K