70 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



they go like frightened deer, and if, as is often the case, they have been flushed 

 near some rocky hill, they will pause not a moment till they have gained its 

 steep sides, up which it would be worse than useless to follow. Should they, 

 however, be put up hard by trees, they will dive in among the foliage and 

 hide, and there standing perfectly motionless will sometimes permit one to 

 approach to the foot of the tree they are lodged in ere taking wing. 



Winter. — What birds are left in the big flocks, after the sportsmen 

 have taken their toll, remain together during fall and winter, for- 

 merly in great droves of hundreds, but now more often in flocks of 

 40 or 60. They are not migratory to any extent. A. C. Lowell, one 

 of Major Bendire's (1892) correspondents in Nevada, told him that 

 they were not able to stand the severe cold, accompanied by a heavy 

 fall of snow in the Warner Valley; 2 feet of snow and 3 nights of 

 28° below zero killed most of the birds. On the other hand, Major 

 Bendire (1892) tells of a flock that spent the winter successfully 

 near Fort Klamath, Oreg., where the snowfall is quite heavy and 

 the thermometer fell " more than once considerably below zero." 



LOPHORTYX CALIFORNICA CATALINENSIS Grinnell 

 CATALINA QUAIL 



HABITS 



Based on a series of six specimens Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1906) 

 gave the name Lophortyx califomica catalinensis to the California 

 quail inhabiting Santa Catalina Island. He characterized it as 

 similar to the valley quail, " but about 9 per cent larger throughout, 

 and coloration somewhat darker; similar to L. c. calif ornicus, but 

 larger and much less deeply brownish dorsally." He says further : 



The bulkiness of catalinensis is at once apparent when one sees it among 

 specimens of the mainland vallicola. The tail is particularly long, the rectrices 

 being proportionately broader. The bill is heavier, and the toes and tarsi 

 decidedly stouter These characters hold equally in the males and females. 

 In coloration catalinensis shows a deepening of shades especially on the lower 

 surface. In both sexes the flanks and lower tail-coverts are more broadly 

 streaked with brown; the terminal black edgings of the lower breast feathers 

 are broader, and the light markings beneath are suffused with deeper ochraceous. 

 Especially in the female of catalinensis is the lower surface darker than in 

 vallicola, due to the encroachment of the dark portions of each parti-colored 

 feather upon the light part. The dorsal surface is not however much browner 

 than in vallicola — it is decidedly slaty as compared with the deep bright vandyke 

 brown of californicus from the vicinity of San Francisco Bay. 



It was thought at first that these quail had been introduced from 

 the mainland, but more recent evidence shows that they were prob- 

 ably native on the island, which perhaps was once connected with 

 the mainland. Doctor Grinnell (1906) was assured that they were 

 there at least as early as 1859. 



