ARIZONA SCALED QUAIL 55 



spring, restricted mainly to the head and throat, and a complete post- 

 nuptial molt in August and September. Albinism occurs occasion- 

 ally, and this species has been known to hybridize with Gambel's 

 quail and with the bobwhite. 



Food. — Mrs. Bailey (1928) sums up the food of this species very 

 well, as follows: 



The Scaled Quail apparently eats more insect food than any of the other 

 quails, or more than 29 per cent, as against 70 per cent of vegetable matter. 

 Of this vegetable matter over 50 per cent is weed seeds, among which are 

 thistle, pigweed, and bindweed, a troublesome weed that often throttles other 

 plants. Dasylirion seeds almost entirely filled six stomachs examined. Wild 

 fruit, such as prickly pear and the succulent parts of desert plants, together 

 with its larger per cent of insect food, doubtless help it to live with a minimum 

 amount of water. Its insect food includes grasshoppers, ants, and beetles — 

 among them leaf chafers and cucumber beetles — weevils, such as the clover 

 pest and scale insects (several hundred in one stomach) that feed on the 

 roots of plants. 



Sylvester D. Judd (1905) says of its vegetable food: 



The species resembles the ruffed grouse in its habit of feeding on green 

 leaves and tender shoots. It feeds upon budded twigs, but more often limits 

 its choice to chlorophyll-bearing tissue, often picking green seed pods of 

 various plants. Like domestic fowls, it eats grass blades. Fruit was eaten 

 by only 6 of the 47 birds, and none was taken from cultivated varieties. As 

 might be expected from inhabitants of arid plains, these birds like the fruit 

 of cacti, and have been found feeding on the prickly pear {Opuntia lindheimeri) . 

 The fruit of Ibervillea lindheimeri also is eaten. The blue berries of Adelia 

 angustifolia, which furnish many desert birds and mammals with food, are 

 often eaten by the scaled quail. Different kinds of Ruius fruits are relished, 

 and the berries of Koeberlinia spinosa and Monisia pallida also are eaten. The 

 fruit and succulent parts of plants no doubt serve in part in the parched 

 desert as a substitute for water. 



Behavior. — The scaled quail is a decidedly terrestrial bird with 

 very powerful legs, which it uses to advantage in the rather open 

 desert growth in which it lives and where it can run very fast in 

 the smooth open spaces among the desert plants. It prefers to 

 escape by running rather than flying; but, if come upon suddenly 

 and surprised, it rises with a whir of wings, flies a short distance, 

 and scales down into cover again, much after the manner of the 

 bobwhite ; it then starts running and can not be easily flushed again. 

 If in a flock, they sometimes follow a leader in Indian file, but more 

 often they scatter in several directions and are soon lost to sight. 

 Major Bendire (1892) quotes Dr. E. W. Nelson, as follows: 



In many instances I have found them far from water, but they make regular 

 ■visits to the watering places. On the Jornada del Muerto and on Santa Fe 

 Creek I found them frequenting the open plains, away from the water in 

 the middle of the day, and in the vicinity of the water late in the afternoon. 

 At this time they are often seen in company with Gambel's Quail amongst 

 the bushes and coarse grass or weeds bordering the water courses. 



