52 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



catclaw, mimosa, various cactuses, and a few yuccas. In the mesas 

 between the mountain ranges and at the mouths of canyons, where 

 underground streams supply some scanty moisture, there are grassy 

 plains, with a scattered row of sycamores or cottonwoods marking the 

 course of an unseen stream. Such are the haunts of the scaled quail, 

 blue quail, or white topknot, as it is appropriately called in Arizona. 

 Here, as one drives along over the winding desert trails, dodging the 

 thorny shrubs or still more forbidding clumps of cactus, he may sur- 

 prise a pair or perhaps a little bevy of these birds, invisible at first 

 in their somber gray dress, which matches their surroundings so well. 

 They do not attempt to escape by flight, but scatter in different direc- 

 tions, running with remarkable speed, with their necks upstretched 

 and their white crests erected, dodging in and out among the desert 

 vegetation, like so many rabbits scurrying off to the nearest brier 

 patch. They are soon lost to sight, for they can run faster than we 

 can and will not flush. 



George Finlay Simmons (1925) says that, in Texas, it "shuns 

 timbered country," but is " characteristic of the barren plateaus in 

 the mountainous districts of western Texas, usually where the soil is 

 fine, loose, and sandy; broad, dry, arid washes, gulches, and semi- 

 barren plateaus of the hills where hard ground is covered with a few 

 thorny bushes, scattered scrub oak, chaparral, mesquite, sagebrush, 

 and different species of cactus; chaparral and mesquite country, gen- 

 erally in the vicinity of water, but sometimes miles from any stream 

 or pond." 



Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey (1928) says that in parts of New 

 Mexico scaled quail collect about the ranches and huts of the settlers, 

 picking up grain left from feeding the horses, or feeding with the 

 chickens. 



Frank C. Willard says in his notes : 



Of the three species of quail found in Cochise County, Ariz., the scaled quail 

 is the one most commonly met with on the dry, brush-covered mesas and valleys. 

 Here it frequents the dry washes, or arroyos, with their fringe of mesquites, 

 small desert willows, and an occasional flat area covered with bear grass. The 

 near proximity of living water does not seem to be at all necessary for their 

 existence, as I have frequently found them 7 or S miles from any water at all. 

 Such of these quail as do live in the vicinity of water make regular daily trips 

 to it and they congregate more thickly around ranches and water holes than they 

 do away from them. 



Along the San Pedro River and the Barbacomari River (a branch of the 

 former), there is a mingling of the scaled quail and Gambel's quail. These two 

 species are also found inhabiting the foothills of the mountains, and the low 

 ranges of hills like those around Tombstone and in the Sulphur Spring Valley. 

 In such localities the two quails occasionally lay their eggs in the same nest. 



Nesting. — While going to and from our camp in Ramsey Canyon, 

 in the Huachuca Mountains, Ariz., we frequently saw two or three 



