DESERT QUAIL 543 



swiftly, or flying when hard pressed. They roosted in the dense bunches of willows 

 and cottonwoods growing along the ditches. . . . When feeding they have a series 

 of low clucking and cooing notes which are kept up almost continually (Nelson, in 

 A. K. Fisher, 1893a, pp. 29-30). 



The Desert Quail depends for safety very largely upon its legs. 

 It runs with astonishing rapidity and usually seeks to escape in this 

 manner rather than by flying. Impenetrable thickets of mesquite, 

 quail brush, catelaw and ironwood afford safe retreats as long as the 

 use of wings is unnecessary. 



According to Judd (1905, p. 57) the food of the Gambel Quail 

 comprises the following elements : insects, 0.48 per cent ; grain, 3.89 

 per cent; miscellaneous seeds, 31.89 per cent; and leaves and plant 

 shoots, 63.74 per cent. Among the insects that have been found in 

 the stomachs of birds examined, are ants, beetles, grasshoppers, leaf- 

 hoppers and stink bugs. The grain taken includes corn, wheat, and 

 oats, the miscellaneous seeds largely those of leguminous plants such as 

 alfalfa, bur clover and mesquite, and also of alfilaria, mustard, chick- 

 weed, peppergrass and atriplex. Succulent foliage and shoots form 

 by far the larger percentage of the food. Of this, alfalfa, bur clover, 

 and tlie foliage of other legumes constitute the greater part. Both 

 the green leaves and pods of alfalfa are freely eaten. In spring this 

 quail shows a fondness for buds, and in some localities its flesh has 

 a distinctly bitter taste due to a diet of willow buds. Certain kinds 

 of fruit are also eaten. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway (1874, III, 

 p. 483) state that during the summer it feeds extensively on the 

 berries of nightshade. Evidence is also at hand that this quail, like 

 many other desert animals, feeds upon the fruit and seeds of certain 

 kinds of cactus. Stomachs of Gambel Quail collected along the Colo- 

 rado River in the spring of 1910 contained masses of mistletoe berries, 

 and, at the time the mesquites were first coming into leaf, quantities 

 of the tender green foliage of this plant (Grinnell, 19146, p. 122). 



The Gambel Quail, like the Valley Quail, is not difficult to domes- 

 ticate. In its own habitat this quail may be readily reared in confine- 

 ment. In but slightly colder climates, however, breeders have met 

 with little or no success. 



Gilman (1907, p. 148) gives the following description of the way 

 in which the Gambel Quail often baffles the hunter : "A big flock 

 is seen and pursued. They divide and Nimrod follows the larger por- 

 tion which again divides and this process of elimination by division 

 continues till the hunter finds he has been up against a vanishing 

 fraction. If near a range the flock immediately takes to the hills 

 and anyone who has once followed them up those sun-burned rocks 

 is ever afterward in the sour grapes class." Hence, it can be seen 

 that the Desert Quail does not make so attractive a game bird as the 



