Food of Grouse and J^uail. 233 



tember, I found them feeding almost exclusively on the fallen dried 

 male flowers of the yellow pine ( Pinus ponderosa) . 



After, about the first of October, these grouse go into the fir 

 trees of the high peaks and are seldom seen. The game law which 

 prohibits their being shot prior to this time is almost equivalent to 

 prohibiting shooting them at all. The open season should begin 

 about the middle of August, when young birds are about two- 

 thirds grown, at which time they are a great luxury, whereas an 

 old bird is no better than an old hen, if as good. Sportsmen, who 

 are familiar with grouse, avoid shooting the adults. 



The mountain quail (Oreortyx pictus plumiferus). which are so 

 plentiful in the high mountains in summer, are only summer resi- 

 dents there. They usually spend the winter below the snow line, 

 but as it is not possible to tell just where that is, or rather where it 

 is going to be, they are sometimes caught in snow storms, but I 

 have been astonished at the correctness of their apparent forecast of 

 different winters. A few birds winter high in the mountains, but I 

 think they are parts of flocks which were nearly annihilated, or 

 young birds which got scattered and lost, and a few that were 

 wounded and survived. 



They begin their journey on foot trom the summit and east slope 

 to the foothills, a little after the first of September, and by the first 

 of October, when the game law allows them to be shot, they have 

 nearly all escaped from the mountain hunters to run the gauntlet of 

 those lower down, on the west slope. In some respects they are 

 very stupid birds, in others, quite the reverse. When they are go- 

 ing from their summer to their winter resorts, birds of a flock can 

 all, or nearly all, be shot if the flock can be turned from its course 

 and scattered. They soon begin to call together and will nearly al- 

 ways respond to a hunter's imitation of their call. The loud pleas- 

 ing call of the male in breeding season is not easily imitated nor 

 described, though apparently consisting of a single note, which is 

 sometimes varied a little. The service berry is the staple article of 

 their food in fall, but they eat more or less of the different kinds of 

 berries which the grouse eat. I suppose they, as well as the grouse, 

 eat berries of the wild coffee ( Rhamnus Californica), but I have no 

 data for a positive opinion. They also eat the acorn of the dwarf 

 oak and seeds of the snow bush ( Ceanothus cordiihihis ) , and seeds 

 of many small plants. I do not know that they eat any of the 



