SAN PEDRO QUAIL 51 



summer habitat in the Sierras, which it appears to leave because the proper 

 time has arrived for its annual tramp down the west slope. The first flocks 

 start about the first of September, or sometimes two or three days sooner. 

 At Webber Lake after three cold cloudy days, they began to move westward 

 August 28, 1900. When they are migrating their whistle is frequently heard, 

 and they do not seek cover for protection but follow a wagon road, railroad, 

 travel in snow sheds, pass near dwelling, and seem to care but little for 

 self preservation. 



Winter. — Belding says further (1892) : 



The mountain quail (Oreortyx pictus plumiferus) , which are so plentiful in 

 the high mountains in summer, are only summer residents there. They usu- 

 ally spend the winter below the snow line, but as it is not possible to tell just 

 where that is, or rather where it is going to be, they are sometimes caught 

 in snow storms, but I have been astonished at the correctness of their apparent 

 forecast of different winters. A few birds winter high in the mountains, but 

 I think they are parts of flocks which were nearly annihilated, or young birds 

 which got scattered and lost, and a few that were wounded and survived. 



OREORTYX PICTA CONFINIS Anthony 



SAN PEDRO QUAIL 



HABITS 



In the mountain ranges of southern California and northern 

 Lower California a grayer race of the mountain quail occurs. This 

 race was discovered and named by A. W. Anthony (1889) from 

 specimens collected in the San Pedro Martir Mountains in Lower 

 California, which he describes as " differing from Oreortyx picta 

 plumifera in grayer upper parts and thicker bill." 



He says of its haunts and habits : 



From an elevation of 6,000 to 10,000 feet above the sea, in the San Pedro 

 Mountains, I found this quail abundant, occurring wherever water and timber 

 afforded it drink and shelter, and only leaving the higher elevations when the 

 frosts of winter make life in the lower valleys desirable. A few pairs bred 

 about my camp at Valladores, 6 miles from the base of the range and 2,500 

 feet above the sea ; but nearly all of the flocks that wintered along the creek at 

 this point were gone in March, leaving only an occasional pair, which sought the 

 shelter of the manzanitas high tip on the hill-sides, from whence their clear, 

 mellow notes were heard morning and evening, so suggestive of cool brooks and 

 rustling pines, but so out of place in the hot, barren hills of that region. 



CALLIPEPLA SQUAMATA PALLIDA Brewster 

 ARIZONA SCALED QUAIL 



HABITS 



The Mexican plateau, with its elevated and arid, or semiarid, 

 plains, extends northward into southern Arizona, New Mexico, and 

 western Texas. Much of this region is dry and barren, except for a 

 scattered growth of creosote bushes, dwarf sagebush, stunted mesquite, 



