VALLEY QUAIL 



517 



by the somewhat different Desert or Gainbel Quail. In mountainous 

 districts it is regularly resident up to 3,500 or 4.000 feet altitude. 

 Less frequently it has been found up to an altitude of 6,000 feet, as 

 near Fort Tejon, Kern County, where young even have been observed 

 (Henshaw, 1876, p. 266). There are records of occurrence at 6,800 

 feet on Thomas Mountain in the San Jacinto Range, and at ahnost 

 8,500 feet altitude on IMount Pinos, Ventura County (Grinnell and 

 Swarth, 1913, p. 230; Grinnell, 1905, p. 382). Belding (1879, p. 

 439) states that in Calaveras County, Valley Quail spend the sum- 

 mer in the i)ine forests as high as the Big Trees (5,000 feet), but 

 that they return for the winter to the chaparral belt below. Above the 

 normal altitudinal range of the Valley Quail, the Mountain Quail 

 (Plumed Pai'tridge) holds sway, 

 though the ranges of the two 

 often overlap over a narrow belt. 

 However, the two species are not 

 known to flock together. In the 

 San Jacinto ^Mountains of south- 

 ern California the Valley, ^Moun- 

 tain and Desert quails may be 

 found closely associated, the first 

 and last being sometimes seen 

 in the same flock, and all have 

 been taken in the course of a 

 morning's shooting. G i 1 m a n 

 (1907, p. 149) reports having found all three in certain caiions near 

 Palm Springs, Riverside County; and on Piiion Flats, 4,000 feet alti- 

 tude, fifteen miles south, he saw representatives of all three species 

 drink from the same spring in the course of half an hour. 



The Valley Quail has been introduced on certain of the islands of 

 the Santa Barbara group, notably on San Clemente Island (Grinnell, 

 1897, pp. 12-13), and on Santa Cruz Island (Henshaw, 1876, p. 266). 

 On Catalina Island, however, there was originally present a closely 

 similar form, Lophortyx calif arnica catalinensis (Grinnell, 1906cf. 

 pp. 264-265). 



Except during the nesting season Valley Quail are to be found in 

 flocks. These range from family assemblages of ten birds or less, up 

 to (in former years) enormous flocks of a thousand or even more; 

 nowadays an average covey is estimated to number from fifteen to 

 forty birds. The tales which are told concerning the abundance of 

 quail in early days are almost unbelievable. A. K. Fisher (1893a, p. 28) 

 records that thousands visited a certain spring in the Temploa 

 [Temblor] Mountains; "... the ground all about the water was 

 covered by a compact body of quails. ..." But such a condition as 



Fig. 83. Side of tarsus and foot of 

 Valley Quail. Natural size. 



Note stout toes and claws, and ab- 

 sence of feathers on tarsus (compare 

 with figs. 77 and 85). 



