The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-30

any bit of southwestern mountainous
 country be taken up by ranchers and Mexicans, or ,Whites began to plant corn in the small valleys, the black quail will leave. The brown quail will find their way there somehow and some time, but their cousins will not await their coming. The two species are never found together, and rarely
 within five miles of each other No body ever killed Massena quail in cultivated place.
 It is probable that both birds are de- scended from a common stock. They are exactly alike in size, shape and head markings, and it is noticeable that the backs of both are that shade of brown which blends most readily with surrounding objects. Whereas, how ever, the common quail has achieved only epper-and- salt breast, the Mas sena's breast is of a jetty, glossy black, very rich and velvety; much handsomer than the black of the crow. They hide this coloration when they squat just as the Virginia bird hides it's pepper-and
 If the two could be induced to lie to the Q0S S1HlulldlleOuSly d llle'ii N'NAN find it difficult to distinguish them, at a distance of five yards. The black quail, though, is not fond of lying to the dog anywhere at any time. It pre- fers to trust first to its muscular legs and second to it's wing power which IS great The country which it effects IS always rugged and not necessarily well watered. It seems to be able to do without water for a considerable tune, and this is the more singular as US country is dewless and the sun IS ln- tensely hot.
 Tn the southwest if cattle tank or other sort of water hole be found 1t IS a reasonable guess that bevy of quail is lurking somewhere near, particularly at noon or in the afternoon, but no such rule holds with the Massena. It feeds on wild berries, grass seeds and weed seeds; black-eyed peas and maize grains seem to have no attraction Tor it.
 Vegetation is not rank in it's land. The hills rise mostly brown and bare of anything except grass, or here and there a stunted oak In the flat places, the small hooks or valleys, pecan trees grow. but the quail cannot handle the pecan. The nut is too large and the shell too hard As there is never great quantity of food, the birds have to range far and wide, and they have thus become great travellers. bevy of brown quail matched on the edge of a ditch that runs through a 50-acre field will spend their lives in that field, never going beyond it; their great-grand- nd if iG pOn6 enough for them.
 If any of them are spared by man and wild animals they will raise their own broods near the ditch when the time comes, but the black-breasted quail tarvels miles in day and when night comes is not at all particular about getting back to it's roost of the night before. For this reason one part of the country may contain good many birds in the fore part of the week and be bare of them in the latter part.
 All things considered the Massena has a hard time of it and just manages to keep up it's numbers. This species if as steadily as the common quail would soon disappear utterly It fled. for some reason. ages ago to the broken country which it now affects, and which is the only country in which it could live at all. It is likely to last for ages to come as thousands of square miles of that land will never be brought under cultivation. In much of it even a sheep would starve. The only dwellers in the better part of it are cowboys, and they carry six-shooters and rifles of large caliber which are not good against a swinging darting Massena that has business elsewhere New York Sun.