Customer Reviews

Hunting the Quails of North America

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book covers the entire gamet of quail hunting. Inclusive are species biological and ecological requirements, photographs and generalized locality maps. A must for the serious grand slam quail hunter.

I bought this book as a gift, and after I received it and thumbed through it, I ordered a copy for myself. It's very informative and interesting. If your a hunter or just a bird watcher, i would recomend this book.

The author is a true hunter and naturally a conservationist to that end. His understanding of the subtleties of behavior of the differnet species of quail is impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed reading his accounts in the field and on the natural history of each species. Well done!!!

This book reminded me of "Native Trout of North America" by Robert H. Smith. Both feature a sportsman in pursuit of all the species/ sub-species of a given game animal. In this case quail and in Mr. Smith's book, trout. I treasure both of them.

The writing style in "Hunting the Quails of North America" is very unusual and I had a hard time following it at first. I did grow accustomed to it and in the end even appreciated the different style. One big positive was the inclusion of maps.

I had hoped to learn more from this book. I became less hopeful when I initially noticed that a photo of a Gambel's Quail was labeled "Valley Quail". "If they can't even get the species of quail correct then how good could this book be?", I thought.

First, the book is heavily weighted in favor of Bobwhite Quail. 50 or so pages of Bobwhite info. compared to an average of 20 - 25 for the other species. He should have stopped at Bobwhites and changed the title.

I don't know alot about Gamble's, Scaled, Bobwhite, or Mearns but I have been hunting CA Valley Quail for over 40 years. Some of what he wrote about them was incorrect. I think the author must have gotten his information from other quail hunters who had incorrect information about that quail and/or outdated nature books. My Valley Quail booklet from the CA Dept. of Fish & Game contradicts several of the statements he writes in the book.

Also, his stories of various quail hunts are poorly written. I don't think the book was ever edited. I don't need to continually read the exact make, model, and country of origin of his shotgun. I am not impressed that his Browning was made in Begium and telling me over and over again will not change that. It sure as hell does not make him a better quail hunter.