Quail needlepoint patterns

A California quail standing in profile, in several styles, with a pair facing each other in the folk art one.

It is a plump, round, short-tailed bird with the mark of the species, a comma-shaped plume that curls forward from the forehead. All are four inches square on 18 mesh. The plume is only a few stitches thick and joins the head, so count it first; the scaled belly is a small repeat, counted row by row.