Game Birds and Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast

by Harry Thom Payne

SCALED QUAIL (Callipepla squamata)

THE SCALED QUAIL

(Callipepla squamata)

Next in geographical order is the scaled quail of Arizona and northern Mexico generally. This, too, is a desert bird which I have seen in great numbers at least twenty-five miles from the nearest water. It is the only member of the quail family where there is no difference in the markings of the sexes, except the mountain quail. In the open country it, too, is a runner, though it can not begin to develop the speed of the gambel nor will it continue to run for such long distances.

During a residence of a year in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, where I was developing some mining property, I found the scaled quail in great numbers all around me. Very few of the Mexican people are wing shots and few hunt except for the resulting meat. Little attention, therefore, is paid to the quail, and in the section where I was located I do not believe that even the "oldest inhabitant" of the quail settlement had ever heard the report of a shotgun. I had with me a brace of English setters, and these birds, though found among chino grama grass and low maguey plant, which offered splendid opportunities for hiding, not only tried my patience to the limit, but that of my dogs as well, by deliberately walking about twenty-five to thirty paces in front of me without the least thought of either hiding or taking to wing. By firing a couple of shots over them each morning I soon educated them to flush at the sight of me. In a couple of weeks they behaved very well and furnished me with good sport, hiding readily and lying good for the dogs.

Most of the game birds need more or less educating before they fully meet the requirements of the sportsmen. Most, too, of the complaints that sportsmen make regarding the bad behavior of certain species of game or birds of certain sections should be charged to the lack on the part of the hunter of a knowledge of their habits rather than to the ill manners of the birds. One will often hear it said that certain men are lucky hunters and can not help staggering onto their game. Such men are lucky because they make a close study of the ways of the birds of each separate character of country. Knowing the places in which they will most likely be found feeding, they approach them from such directions as will have a tendency to drive them into the desired cover. A great deal of the annoyance of running birds, I have found, can be avoided by a careful study of their habits and proper management in handling them, and this is especially true of the scaled quail.

Color—The back, the wings and tail coverts are a light, ashy blue, but the feathers of the shoulders, breast and abdomen are margined with dark brown, with a yellowish arrow-shaped central spot which gives them the appearance of scales. Its throat is a very faint buff, and instead of the plume of the genus Lophortyx it has a broad erectile crest with the feathers tipped with white. Both sexes are alike.

Nest and Eggs—The nesting habits are the same as those of the other species of the blue quail family, but the eggs are more of a buff and generally more speckled with brown.

Measurements—About the same as the valley quail.