52 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 12 



Black Oystercatcher (21) Swarth, Bull. Cooper Orn. Club, i, 1899, p. 85. (22) Willett, 

 Condor, xii, 1910, p. 171. 



Fairly common resident on some of the islands. There were at least four 

 pairs of these birds nesting on the Coronados in 1910, and I several times en- 

 countered the downy young after the middle of June. Breeds on the Coronados, 

 Santa Barbara, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel and Santa Rosa islands. Most 

 plentiful on the last, where G. Willett (14) took five sets of eggs, June 17, 1910. 



Data would seem to indicate that these birds do not lay much before the mid- 

 dle of May. Usually three and more rarely four eggs are laid. In winter the 

 legs and feet are yellow, but towards spring they become bright red. Certain 

 rocky points are selected by the birds, and to these are often brought the barna- 

 cles which they pry off the rocks. These are worked over at leisure, and at one 

 such depot on the Coronados which I examined, there was fully a bushel of shells. 



80, Lophortyx calif ornica vallicola (Ridgway) 



Valley Quail 



Lophortyx calif ornicus (1) Cooper, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., iv, 1870, p. 79. (2) Cooper, 

 Land Birds Calif., i, 1870, p. 550. (3) Henshaw, Rep. Wheeler Surv., 1876, p. 266. 



Callipepla calif ornica vallicola (4) Grinnell, Pasadena Acad. Sci., i, 1897, p. 12. (5) 

 Grinnell, Auk, xv, 1898, p. 234. 



Lophortyx calif ornicus vallicola (C) Oberholser, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xxii, 1900, p. 229. 

 (7) Mearns, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., lvi, 1907, p. 142. (S) Wright, Condor, xi, 1909, p. 

 100. {9) Howell, Condor, xii, 1910, p. 187. 



Lophortyx catalinensis (10) Grinnell, Auk, xxiii, 1906, p. 262. {11) [Childs], Warbler, 

 III, 1907, p. 1. (12) Richardson, Condor, xi, 1908, p. 66. (IS) Grinnell, Condor, x, 

 1908, p. 94. (Ut) A. O. U. Committee, Auk, xxv, 1908, p. 391. 



Lophortyx sp,? (lo) Osburn, Condor, xi, 1909, p. 137. 



Lophortyx californica vallicola (16) Willett, Pac. Coast Avif., 7, 1912, p. 43. (11) Grin- 

 nell, Pac. Coast Avif., 11, 1915, p. 59. 



Lophortyx californica catalinensis (18) Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avif., 8, 1912, p. 10. (19) 

 Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avif., 11, 1915, p. 59. 



Rather rare on the Coronados ; common on Catalina. There are at present a 

 few pairs on south island of the Coronados. L. M. Huey (MS) remembers years 

 ago to have heard talk of a Mr. Babcock of San Diego establishing a hunting pre- 

 serve upon the island, and believes that the birds were introduced at that time. 

 They now seem to have a rather precarious foothold there, and it is likely that 

 Duck Hawks and wild house cats will exterminate them in the near future. In 

 coloration, individuals may be found which somewhat approach californica, but 

 the majority have the markings of vallicola. It is not improbable that a part of 

 the birds which were liberated, were of each race. They are essentially the same 

 as birds from the mainland, four birds from my collection differing only to a 

 slight degree in having shorter bills and middle toes, and longer tails, an insuffi- 

 cient difference to warrant separation. 



Mr. Howland of, San Clemente Island, tells me that there were two or three 

 dozen birds liberated there in 1913, but that he has not seen any of them very 

 recently. G. Willett (16), however, records the species previous to that time (in 

 1912) as occasional on San Clemente, so that introduction may have taken place 

 at an earlier period. 



