Mearns quail were once thought to be extinct but today exist in huntable numbers, although you have to work to find them.

California
It was an amazing sight. Late one afternoon, as my hunting partner, Mike Schwiebert, and I topped out over a ridge, we spotted a covey of California quail traveling to a waterhole on the other side of an open pasture. We figured there had to be upwards of 250 birds in that bunch.

We tried to sneak in closer but they vanished into thick brush before we could touch off a single shot. Some hunters speak in hushed tones about seeing as many as 500 birds in a covey during late winter, but I have yet to be graced with such a vision. This bird of the West Coast will weigh about half again as much as the bobwhite and is quite a beauty. Someone who considers the ringneck pheasant the most handsome of game birds has obviously never enjoyed a close-up look at the California quail. Lovely plumage along with an apostrophe-shaped plume of feathers sprouting from the top of its head make it quite a looker.

To me, the old Beach Boys song about California girls also applies to the quail I dearly love to hunt in that state. I wish they all could be California quail.

Found from the lower tip of the Baja Peninsula to the southern part of British Columbia, the California species manages to thrive in a variety of habitats ranging from semidesert covered with sagebrush to tropical forest. Their preference for valleys and foothills, usually at elevations below 4,000 feet may be why they are just as commonly called valley quail.

Gambel
I hate Gambel quail. Well actually, I don't hate all Gambel quail, but I do hate those that insist on running just enough faster than me to stay beyond reach of my shotgun. And plenty of them have a tendency to do just that.

I first hunted the Gambel in Old Mexico, and I still wake up in a cold sweat thinking about those leg-melting, lung-searing sprints through gauntlets of cacti and other barbed things that are still working their way out of my hide.

Most recently I hunted Gambel quail in Arizona and can attest to the fact that birds living there are no more civilized than those living south of the border.

While getting a decent shot at a Gambel quail can take some doing, I don't find them all that difficult to hit. This could mean either of two things--the flight of the Gambel is easier to intercept with a charge of No. 71?2s than its five cousins, or I concentrate more on shooting well so I won't have to run as far to fill my bag.

Mearns
In the United States, the Mearns quail can be hunted only in Arizona and New Mexico--and in only a few places there. The western fringes of south Texas is reputed to have a few birds but not enough to hunt.

If not for the efforts of conservation-minded hunters, the Mearns quail might not exist today. It is a bird of the grasslands, and the introduction of cattle into its habitat during the late 1800s had a devastating effect on Mearns numbers.

By 1929 no hunting was allowed in Arizona, and a decade later this wonderful little guinea fowl was thought to be extinct. Then hunters who had once walked up quail started using pointing dogs and discovered that the Mearns actually existed in huntable numbers. A two-day experimental season was reestablished in Arizona in 1960, and it was eventually expanded to the three-month season of today.