Game Birds and Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast Part 3

Outside of the progenitors of our common barnyard fowl, there is no wild bird that mankind has domesticated whose distribution in its domestic state has become so wide as that of the wild turkey, and none have been so highly prized as an article of food. It is from the Mexican wild turkey, =Meleagris gallopavo=, that all of our domestic turkeys have descended. First captured in Mexico by the early settlers of that country, they were taken to the West Indies and there domesticated as early as 1527, for Oviedo, in his "Natural History of the Indias," speaks of the wild turkey having been taken from Mexico to the islands and there being bred in a domestic state. From the West Indies they were taken to Spain, France and England, and again brought back to America as domestic fowls. In 1541 they must have been scarce yet in England, for in an edict promulgated by Cranmer in that year, the "turkey c.o.c.ke" was named as one of "the greater fowles," and which "an ecclesiastic was to have but one in a dishe." By 1573, however, they must have become quite plentiful, for in that year Tusser mentions them as the most approved "Christmas husbandlie fare."

Inasmuch as there were no settlements of either English, French or Spanish in America north of Mexico until 1584, or in that section of the country inhabited by the eastern species of wild turkey until sixty years after the turkey is known to have been introduced into England, the common belief that the eastern species (=Meleagris sylvestris=) was the foundation of the domestic turkey is clearly an error; but the ornithologist does not find it necessary to consult history to determine the origin of the domestic turkey. That distinguishing feature of the Mexican wild turkey (=Meleagris gallopavo=), the broad, light sub-terminal of the rump feathers, is so strong that even after three and a half centuries of domestication, changes in color through selection in breeding, and possibly crossing to some extent with the eastern and Florida species, those markings, peculiar to it alone, are unmistakably present even in the lightest-colored varieties.

As a game bird the turkey has but few equals. Like most of game birds they are comparatively tame and unsuspicious until after they have been hunted, and learned that of all animals man is their greatest foe and most to be dreaded, for whenever he is within sight he is within the range of his instruments of destruction. I have seen the Mexican wild turkey constantly running or flushing in front of us from morning till night as we traveled through their country for days. They showed but little fear, for while we killed all we could eat, we were constantly traveling, so that those that had been introduced to the white man's methods of destroying were left behind us, and those in front of us had yet the lesson to learn; but when the wild turkey has been hunted a little it becomes about as wary, cunning and resourceful as any bird that flies.

The Mexican wild turkey is the largest of the race, and has been, and is yet, the most plentiful. They are strictly mountain dwellers, not often found in alt.i.tudes of less than twenty-five hundred to three thousand feet, and more frequently from four to six thousand, and even up to eight thousand feet or more. They are strictly timber dwellers, usually, if not always, living in the pine forests, for I can not call to mind a single instance where I have found them except where pines of some variety were the princ.i.p.al trees. In size, individuals vary a good deal.

So, also, will the general average be found to vary as much as ten pounds in different localities. Generally the higher their habitat the larger the birds, some of the old gobblers reaching forty pounds if not more. I remember killing one in the Sierra Madres of northern Mexico that I carried about three miles into camp over a very rough country. By the time I got him there I was willing to bet my last "silver 'dobe"

that he weighed a ton. I have also killed some very large ones in the San Francisco mountains of Arizona.

The wild turkey, like the mountain quail, has an up and down mountain migration. In the early spring the hens begin to work up the mountains and seek the densest jungles, and of course the gobblers follow them.

The gobblers are polygamous, and have but little respect for their families. They will not only destroy the nests, but even the young birds. For this reason the hens are very secretive in nesting, taking as much care in hiding them away from the gobblers as from their other enemies. As soon as the hens begin setting the gobblers gather in flocks and remain by themselves until joined in the early fall by the hens and their half-grown broods. After this the flocks soon begin their migration to the lower hills and mountain openings, and congregate into immense roosts. Places were once to be seen where they had filled the trees for acres in such numbers as to break the limbs in many instances. In those times and localities they were too tame and too plentiful to afford much amus.e.m.e.nt to the man who hunted them for sport, but with the exception of some places in Mexico that day has pa.s.sed, and the sportsman who hunts these grand game birds now will find a quarry worthy of his skill and affording him sufficient exertion to whet his appet.i.te for the delicious feast they furnish him.

Both the habits and the habitat of the wild turkey make the sport of hunting them especially enjoyable. As soon as the gobblers are deserted by the hens they become more wary, and the crack of a twig or the sight of a man, be he ever so far away, and they at once seek cover. Then the keen eye and the noiseless tread of the still hunter is called upon for his best and most careful efforts, for the eyes of these gobblers are quick to catch the slightest move and their ears acute to the faintest sound. The curiosity of a deer often makes him hesitate long enough for the opportunity of a shot, but the gobbler, after the hens have left him, is no longer lured by curiosity. His business is to keep out of sight, and he can do it, after he has once learned the destructiveness of man, just a little more successfully than any other bird or animal that I have ever hunted.

There are no wild turkeys west of the Colorado river, nor on the peninsula of Lower California; but there can be no reason to doubt that, had the mountains of Arizona connected with the pines of the Coast range in San Bernardino county or with the Sierras of Inyo or Kern, the mountains of California would have been as well supplied with turkey as are its valleys with quail.

=Color=--The color of the wild turkey varies very much except in those that are found in the higher mountains and far away from civilization.

Domestication of over three hundred and fifty years has not yet robbed the turkey of its love for the wild and they are often seen long distances away from the farms feeding contentedly. In countries where the wild turkey still existed these tame varieties of various colors have mixed with them, often to such an extent as to change the color very materially. I have seen flocks in Mexico ranging close to ranch houses with turkeys among them so light-colored that they were no doubt tame birds that had wandered away with their wild progenitors.

The wild turkey of Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado is a dark bronze bird with a light-colored rump, caused by the upper tail coverts being tipped with a broad subterminal band of white, narrowly tipped with black. The tail feathers are dark brown, spotted with black and tipped with white.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nest of the wild turkey is generally in a depression in the ground, high up on the mountains, and carefully hidden away in some dense thicket. I cannot call to mind ever seeing but two nests. One of these had but seven eggs while the other had seventeen. The markings are the same as those of the tame turkey.

=Measurements=--The total length varies from three to four and a half feet; wing 18 to 24 inches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MONGOLIAN PHEASANT (Phasia.n.u.s torquatus)]

THE MONGOLIAN PHEASANT

(Phasia.n.u.s torquatus)

While the wild turkey is the only representative of the =Phasianidae= found native to the American continent, the Mongolian pheasant has been so successfully acclimatized in Oregon and Washington that it must now be recognized as an established resident species.

After it became an established fact that these pheasants were proving a success in Oregon, there became a demand for their introduction into California, and thousands of dollars were spent for a number of years in an unsuccessful effort to acclimatize them. The pheasant, like the grouse, is a cold country bird, and the mild and dry climate of California does not appeal to their peculiar tastes or the requirements of their physical being. Oregon, however, possesses the climatic, floral and entomic conditions for which nature has fitted them. Green vegetation lasts during the whole season in which they rear their young, thus furnishing them with that abundance of insects necessary to the health and nourishment of the young chicks. They are endowed with certain physical attributes for which the cold of winter is necessary to preserve a continued healthful condition, and this, too, they find in Oregon. In fact this const.i.tutional demand for the cold of winter has been by nature so strongly implanted within them that the rearing of thirty generations in the comparatively mild climate of Oregon has not effaced it, and obeying this primal instinct they have migrated through Washington and into the better-loved and colder winters of British Columbia.

Therefore, while California undoubtedly may have an abundance of wild turkeys, quail in unlimited numbers and of two or three more species than we have at present, the timber and the plain tinamus of South America, and possibly the sand grouse of southern Europe, she will never have pheasants unless they be of the extreme southern varieties, and never have more than a limited supply of grouse.

North of the mountains of southern Oregon and through Washington into British Columbia pheasants are plentiful and furnish the princ.i.p.al sport of the lovers of upland shooting of that section of the Pacific Coast. The Mongolian pheasant as a game bird has his merits and demerits. As a large, beautiful plumaged bird to grace the game bag the pheasant stands without a rival. As a table bird the pheasant is only surpa.s.sed in delicacy of flavor by the wild turkey. As an aggravating runner from the dog the pheasant is in a cla.s.s by itself, and as an evader of all pursuit when wounded, "the Chinaman," as they are generally called in Oregon, can give odds to the gambel quail.

Though the pheasant is a large bird and able to carry off a good deal of shot, it starts so slow to one accustomed to the rapid flight of the California quail that a reasonably fair shot will find no difficulty in getting the limit with a sixteen gauge.

They are slow starters, caused by their habit of rising at an angle of forty-five to fifty degrees until they reach a height of about ten feet before their rapid flight begins, but when once on the wing they are quite swift flyers.

While I have said that the pheasants are aggravating runners, this is princ.i.p.ally so in the latter part of the season. In the earlier parts they are commonly found in the stubble fields, potato and other vegetable patches, and usually in single broods. At such times I have found them to lie quite well to the dog, not flushing until closely approached, and running but little except when winged. They are then easy shooting, but the fine size of the bird and the beautiful plumage of the c.o.c.ks give a zest to the sport and a pleasant distinctiveness which every sportsman will be pleased to add to the list of upland shooting he has engaged in.

To those who wish to spend a season on these handsome birds, Oregon, especially, offers an attraction which goes far beyond its good supply of pheasants. During the open pheasant season the climate of Oregon is as near perfect as one can ask. That season of the eastern states that has been idealized in verse, and is known as Indian summer, finds its superlative in the early fall of Oregon. The sun shines brightly, but with its rays softened by its sub-equinoctial position; the air is mild, clear and invigorating, and the golden hues of the stubble field, the yet bright green of the gra.s.sy pastures, the rich tints of the dying autumn leaves, all framed in the blue-green fringe of the near-by pines and firs, produce a picture strikingly beautiful and always enjoyed. It is in this delightful season with such a picture on every side, heightened by an occasional glimpse of some towering mountain peak with its crown of eternal snows, that the sportsman of Oregon lays aside the cares of life and lives in an elysium during his pheasant-shooting days. The setting of the stage is as much to the play as the acting. So with our days after game. The invigorating air we breathe, the beauty of the landscape, the stateliness of the forest, the rugged grandeur of the mountains, the soul-inspiring picture of our dogs on point and back, lends more to the real enjoyment of the day than does the size of the bag we carry home.

=Color=--Male--The male of the Mongolian pheasant can not be confounded with any other game bird in America. Its very long tail feathers--from fifteen to twenty inches--will always prove a distinguishing mark. Its rich metallic colors of black, cinnamon, chestnut and ocher give it a combination of hues surpa.s.sing that of any other of our game birds.

Female--Nor should the female ever be mistaken for any other bird. It partakes much of the general colors of the male, but much subdued and more of a general ochreous hue, the plumage being buff mottled with brown. The tail, however, is not more than one-fourth the length of that of the male.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nest is generally a depression on the ground, but often in the hollow of some log. The eggs number from 12 to 18 and are of a dark ochre in color.

=Measurements=--The measurements of a Mongolian pheasant are practically useless on account of the larger portion of it being the tail, which greatly varies in length.

THE PIGEONS AND DOVES

The family =Columbidae= is represented on the Pacific Coast by three genera which are considered, to more or less extent, legitimate game, though they can not be termed game birds in the generally accepted use of the term. Still as they are hunted to a very considerable extent by the sportsmen of the Coast, they rightfully belong in a work of this kind. I shall, therefore, give them a place, and briefly treat each species that is pursued as game within the territory under consideration.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOURNING DOVE BANDED PIGEON WHITE-WINGED DOVE (Zenaidura macroura) (Columba faciata) (Melopelia leucoptera)]

THE WILD PIGEON

(Columba faciata)

The wild, or banded pigeon, is a mountain dweller, found princ.i.p.ally in the southern half of the territory covered by this work. They visit the valleys in the fall and winter months to feed on the oak mast, and at such times they are seen in large flocks in the Sacramento, San Joaquin and coast valleys of California. They are found in good numbers in parts of Arizona, and are common along both sides of the Sierra Madres of Mexico. When visiting the valleys they afford good sport, as they are swift flyers and capable of carrying off a good deal of shot. They have no migrations like the pa.s.senger pigeon once so plentiful in the eastern states, nor do they congregate in such immense flocks.

=Color=--About the same as the darker colored tame pigeon; the tail is a trifle longer than the tame bird and a little lighter than the rest of the plumage with a dark band across the middle of it; a small patch of white feathers at the back of the head. Both s.e.xes are alike.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nest is built in the trees of small twigs and gra.s.s. Two eggs are layed at a time, and a pair of young birds are produced about every six weeks from April to August.

=Measurements=--A trifle more than the tame pigeon.

THE MOURNING DOVE

(Zenaidura macroura)

The mourning dove is a cosmopolitan species found in greater or less numbers in all sections. They have a slight migratory movement from the higher to the lower alt.i.tudes, but they cannot be called a migratory bird. A large number of these birds begin their nesting season in the mountains at alt.i.tudes of from 2000 to 4000 feet, raising one brood at that height, then moving down and nesting again, and moving again until they reach the lower valleys, where they remain all winter, congregating in certain places in flocks of hundreds.

Many, however, remain in the valleys all the year and nest around the fields and along the streams.

The mourning dove is so well known in every country that a description of it is unnecessary.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nest is generally built in the small trees and lined with any soft article that they can find. The eggs number two and a pair of the young birds are hatched about every six weeks from May to September.

THE WHITE-WINGED DOVE

(Melopelia leucoptera)

The white-winged dove is nearly one-half larger than the common mourning dove. They range from Mexico through southern Arizona to the Colorado desert in southeastern California. In some parts of Arizona and in Mexico they are found in large numbers, and afford good shooting. Their habits are the same as the common dove, both as to food and nesting, though in parts of Mexico it nests in the pitahaya plants--a species of cactus--of whose fruit it is very fond.