88 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The molt starts on the upper breast, flanks, and shoulders, working 

 gradually downward ; the rich chestnut in the center of the breast 

 of the male is the last of the body plumage to be acquired; but the 

 entire body molt is completed before any change takes place on the 

 head; the conspicuous head markings are not assumed in the young 

 male until December or later. A very limited prenuptial molt takes 

 place in spring and a complete postnuptial molt late in summer and 

 in fall, after which young birds are fully adult. 



Food. — Mrs. Bailey (1928) summarizes the food of Mearns's quail 

 as follows: 



As far as known, lily bulbs — % of tbe food in 5 specimens and to judge 

 from their large strong digging feet provided with sharp claws perhaps the 

 principal article of their diet — also great numbers of acorns and pinyon nuts, 

 and in addition seeds and spines of prickly pear, acacia, seeds of legumes and 

 spurges, grass blades, berries of mountain laurel, arbutus, and cedar, and such 

 insects as weevils, caterpillars, bugs, crickets, and grasshoppers. 



A pair that Mr. Bailey started at the head of the Mimbres at about 8,000 

 feet had been scratching under the pine trees. " In the freshly scratched 

 ground," he says, " I found a quantity of membranacious shells of a little bulb — 

 probably Cyperus— and several of the bulbs. I ate one of these and found it 

 good, starchy, juicy, crisp, and of a nutty flavor. The Quail had dug two or 

 three inches deep in the hard ground and seemed to find plenty of bulbs, but I 

 could not find one by digging new ground, nor could I find the plant which 

 bore them. 



Behavior. — Mearns's quail is a gentle, retiring bird of rather sed- 

 entary habits. It prefers to walk about slowly and quietly among 

 the rocks, bushes, and clumps of grass on the rough hillsides where 

 it lives. If alarmed, it squats and freezes, immovable, until almost 

 trodden upon or touched, when it rises from almost under foot, flies 

 a short distance, drops into cover and squats again. When greatty 

 alarmed it sometimes flies to a great distance in a very swift and 

 direct flight. Several observers have mentioned coming upon one 

 or more of these birds in the mountain roads, where they are fond 

 of dusting; they showed no alarm, either walking away quietly or 

 squatting and freezing. Captain William L. Carpenter says in his 

 notes : 



I once slopped my horse when about to step on one and watched it for some 

 time without creating alarm. After admiring it for several moments squatting 

 close to the ground within a yard of the horse, watching me intently, but 

 apparently without fear, I dismounted and almost caught it with my hat, from 

 under which it fluttered away. 



Henshaw witnessed a remarkable exhibition of the confidence that 

 this bird shows in its protective coloration, for he says in some notes 

 sent to Mrs. Bailey (1928) : 



Of the several quail known to me the " fool quail " of New Mexico and 

 Arizona seems to depend for his safety upon his protective coloration more 



