VALLEY QUAIL 533 



these enemies had captured and devoured a quail. Being a ground- 

 nesting species, the eggs are doubtless frequently destroyed by preda- 

 tory mammals and snakes. Four instances are on record (Hoover, 

 1899, p. 75) of the western gopher snake eating quail's eggs. In one 

 case, at Stanford University, a female California Quail attracted 

 attention as it fluttered excitedly in some shrubbery, trying to drive 

 a snake away from the nest. "I carried the snake about fifty yards 

 down the path and put him down. He started off in the direction of 

 the nest, and when I returned an hour later he was gulping down an 

 egg/' and there was already a lump in tiie snake's body. In another 

 instance a gopher snake was found to have swallowed six quail's eggs. 



Bendire (1892, p. 26) states that unusually cold weather has a 

 disastrous effect on the birds. Thousands were thought to have been 

 killed by cold in the vicinity of Fort Bidwell, Modoc County, in the 

 Avinter of 1887-88. This, however, is at the extreme northern edge 

 of the range of the species; over the greater part of its territory cold 

 probably never has any effect except as influencing food supply. Con- 

 siderable heat is borne without apparent inconvenience. 



Our quail in the wild appear to be little subject to disease, and 

 there are no records of epidemics having occurred among the Cali- 

 fornia species. However, intestinal parasites are not uncommon. 

 Thompson (1901 a, p. 15) states that while hunting quail in Monterey 

 County about 1898, he found that the intestines of close to one-third 

 of the birds shot contained tapeworms from 21^ to 4 inches long. 

 J. ^lailliard states (1902rt, p. 19) that he found so many California 

 Quail similarly parasitized in Marin County that he was led to believe 

 that these birds were particularly subject to such affliction. He also 

 found smaller worms in birds collected in both Marin and San Benito 

 counties. However, neither author found any evidence to show that 

 the presence of these worms had any bearing on the health of the 

 birds. A possible danger to our wild quail comes from the custom 

 of rearing native birds in captivity where they may have been brought 

 in contact with foreign species harboring disease germs. In such 

 event, by liberation of captive birds an epidemic might be started 

 among our wild stock, with disastrous results. 



Our quails have now been introduced into many localities where 

 they were not native. As early as 1857 shipments were taken to the 

 state of Washington ; and in the neighboring states of Oregon and 

 Nevada the introduced birds have done so well that unless an observer 

 were told of their introduction he would believe them to be native. 

 They have been established successfully in some of the Hawaiian 

 Islands and in other parts of the w^orld. In eastern North America, 

 however, attempts to introduce Valley Quail have been about as unsuc- 

 cessful as have been the efforts to establish the Bobwhite in California. 



