





Native gallinaceous or chicken-like birds, the so-called "upland game birds," were originally dis- 

 tributed throughout North America so that one or more species occupied almost every type of natural 

 environment on the continent. A few new types of environment or habitat created more recently by 

 man have also been occupied by additional species brought over from the Old World. There are very 

 few habitat types known for North America that do not support, at least in part, some species of gal- 

 linaceous game bird; althougli there may be certain areas of suitable habitats that these species have 

 failed to reach or where they have been extirpated. 



UNOCCUPIED HABITATS 



It is simpler to list those liabitats in which no 

 species of gallinaceous game bird is found regularly 

 than to list those in whicii one or more species do 

 occur. Some unoccupied habitats are extremely 

 inhospitable from the standpoint of available 

 water. Others are isolated pockets or islands of a 

 type (like the alpine meadow of California and 

 Oregon) that is occupied by a gallinaceous species 

 in other regions. The following habitats are 

 unoccupied by any species of gallinaceous game 

 bird, at least in certain areas; 



1. Grassland belt below oak savannah at west base of the 

 Sierra Nevada in California. (A few California quail 

 occur there in brushy canyons.) 



2. Alpine meadows of the Sierra Nevada in California and 

 southern Cascades in Oregon. 



3. Pinon-juniper woodland in low southwestern desert 

 ranges (where not in contact with higher mountain 

 forests) . 



4. Short^grass plains in Arizona. 



5. Cold desert scrub (greasewood-shadscale) salt flats in 

 western Nevada (except where rock partridges enter 

 occasionally from higher sagebrush areas). 



li. Creosotebush-bur sage in hot dry southwestern desert 

 where not associated with other plant types. 



RACES 



Just as man produces varieties of poultry, so 

 nature produces varieties of wild species — by selec- 

 tive breeding. Wild varieties are called races or 

 subspecies. Tlieir selective breeding is effected by 

 the impartial hand of their environment. Only 

 the individuals that are adapted to the particular 

 set of environmental factors surrounding them are 

 able to survive and breed more of their kind. 

 Thus a race of an upland game bird species that is 

 successful in maintaining itself in one part of the 



country under one set of environmental factors 

 may not survive if moved to another region of 

 somewhat different environment, even if another 

 race of the same species has been able to succeed 

 there. This principle has frequently been over- 

 looked in efforts to transplant game birds from one 

 region to another in restocking programs, and 

 many failures of introductions have resulted be- 

 cause of this. 



Usually an individual species of upland game 

 bird is restricted in its distribution to tlie geo- 

 graphical region providing its favored envu'on- 

 mental type or habitat, such as deciduous forest, 

 coniferous forest, grassland, or desert scrub. The 

 races of these species may be even more restricted 

 in their distribution by relatively minor climatic 

 differences. Tiiese climatic differences are usually 

 indicated by differences in the dominant vegeta- 

 tion. Consequently, geographic races or sub- 

 species, besides appearing slightly different from 

 one another, tend to be limited to definite ecologi- 

 cally defined subdivisions of the species range. 

 Tliis may be noted by comparing the following 

 maps with standard maps of natural vegetation. 



In some cases gaps in occupied habitat produced 

 by such physical barriers as large expanses of water 

 or high mountain ranges will separate two sub- 

 species. Whatever the barrier, whether physio- 

 graphical or ecological, it must be effective in 

 preventing extensive interbreeding between neigh- 

 boring races. Free interbreeding would tend to 

 mix the racial characters, with eventual oblitera- 

 tion of racial distinction. Such blending often 

 does occur in zones between the ranges of two 

 races, resulting in "intergradation"; individuals of 

 this intergrading population are sometimes so com- 



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