VALLEY QUAIL 67 



ing in detail, but I prefer to quote Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer's 

 (1918) summary of it, as follows: 



A flock was heard calling and moving about on a brushy hillside some 

 distance from the observer, but before coming into view a single individual 

 preceded the rest and took his station in the branches of an apple tree, whence 

 he could survey the region round about. After carefully scrutinizing his 

 surroundings for several minutes the kayrk note was uttered several times 

 in a low guttural tone. Soon members of the flock were seen coming down 

 the hill in the same direction as taken by the sentinel, but their manner of 

 approach was entirely different; he had exercised great caution and care- 

 fully examined the surroundings for possible danger, while they came with 

 their plumed heads held low, searching among the clover roots for seeds and 

 other articles of food. Some preened and fluffed out their feathers; others 

 took dust baths. While so occupied they all kept up a succession of low 

 conversational notes. Meanwhile the sentinel remained on his perch and con- 

 tinued on the alert even after the flock had moved some distance beyond him. 

 Then a second bird mounted a vantage point and took up the sentinel duty 

 and after a few minutes the first relinquished his post. While the flock was 

 still in view, yet a third bird relieved the second. It would seem that by this 

 practice, of establishing sentinels on a basis of divided labor, the flock had 

 increased its individual efficiency in foraging. The same observer also states 

 that he had seen sentinels used when a flock was crossing a road, or when 

 " bathing " in the roadside dust, and that the practice is made general use 

 of in open areas ; but he had never observed the habit when the birds were 

 in tree-covered localities. During the breeding season it is known that 

 the male mounts guard while the female is searching for a nesting site, and 

 again when she is incubating the eggs. Sometimes he also performs this 

 guard function after the chicks are out but not fully grown. 



Unlike our eastern bobwhite, which roosts on the ground, the 

 valley quail roosts at night in safer places, in bushes or in low, 

 thick-foliaged trees. In the treeless region of Lower California, 

 Laurence M. Huey (1927) found quail roosting in the centers of 

 cactus patches. Dawson (1923) says he has "seen a wounded bird 

 swim and dive with great aplomb." 



Voice. — Some of the notes of this quail suggest the familiar bob- 

 white of our eastern quail. Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) have 

 described them very well, as follows: 



The Valley Quail has a variety of notes which are used under different con- 

 ditions and to express various meanings. When anxious or disturbed the 

 members of a flock utter a soft pit, pit, pit, or whit, whit, whit, in rapid 

 succession, as they run about under the brush or when about to take wing. 

 Then there is a loud call used by the males to assemble the flock when scat- 

 tered. This has been variously interpreted as ca-loi'-o, o-hi'-o, tuck-a-hoe' , 

 k-woik'-uh, ki-ka-kce', ca-ra'-ho, tuck-ke-teu' , or more simply as who-are'-yow- 

 ah. However, the easiest and by far the most usual interpretation is come- 

 right' -here, or come-right-home, with the accent on the second syllable. Some- 

 times when excited a bird calls come-right, come-right, come-right-here. In at 

 least one instance a female bird has been observed to utter this call. The notes 

 of the Valley Quail are less elaborate than those of the Desert Quail, the 



