John,
It's not the lighting. When color is important, I manually set the white balance with a photography standard right before taking the shots. (See the white balance card below.) Both of these skins were bought at Blue Ribbon Flies.
Gambel's Quail vary in color, and I seek out skins that are have more of the brownish dun. The photo above is a male (L) and a female (R), but that's not the source of the color difference. I've seen such variation in both sexes. Your photo shows very little of the brownish dun, and mostly on the wings and back. Any chance your white balance is a little off?