26 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



12. Callipepla californica vallicola RIDGWAY. 



VALLEY PARTRIDGE. 



Cattipepla californica vallicola RIDGWAY, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, vm, 



1885, 355. 

 (B _ C , R , C U 294a.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE : From western and southern Oregon, except near the 

 coast, south through western Nevada and the interior of California to Cape St. 

 Lucas, Lower California. 



This race, a paler and grayer-colored bird than the preceding, is an in- 

 habitant of the drier interior valleys and foothills of the mountains ranging 

 from Cape St. Lucas, Lower California, throughout central California east of 

 the Coast Range, through westeni Oregon. It occurs on both sides of the 

 Sierra Nevada, at least as far north as the head of Owen's River, and east- 

 ward to the western border of Death Valley, California, where I met with 

 this subspecies in 1867. In southeastern California, according to Dr. Elliott 

 Coues, "It reaches nearly to the Colorado River, following along the course 

 of the Mojave to the spot where it sinks in the desert, then- meeting the 

 western, extension of the range of Callipepla gambeli." 1 



In southwestern Oregon it does not appear to occur anywhere on the 

 eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, north of Fort Klamath, unless 

 recently introduced. It is common in the upper and middle parts of the 

 Willamette Valley, while in the lower part of this valley it intergrades with 

 Callipella californica. It has been transplanted to Utah, in the vicinity of 

 Ogden, as well as in various parts of Nevada, where it is HOAV found in 

 suitable localities along the entire western border of this State, from Car- 

 son and Reno, along the west shore of Pyramid Lake, to the northern end 

 of Warner Valley, Oregon. It is a resident and breeds wherever found. A 

 few years ago the Valley Partridge was exceedingly abundant about Fort 

 Bidwell, in the extreme northeastern part of the State of California. 



Mr. A. C. Lowell writes me from there as follows: "These birds are 

 unable to stand the severe cold of this region, especially when accompanied 

 by a heavy fall of snow. In the winter of 1887-'88 about 2 feet of snow 

 fell, followed by three very severe nights in which the thermometer reached 

 28 below zero. This killed most of these birds. In the following fall I 

 heard of but three or four coveys of Quail within a radius of 60 miles where 

 thousands had been the year before. They ranged from the north end of 

 Warner Valley south to Reno, Nevada, and were especially numerous in 

 Buffalo Cafion and along the west shore of Pyramid Lake. They were very 

 common up to the summits of the Warner Mountains, which attain hen- an 

 altitude of about 6,000 feet, though the canons and water courses found 

 along those slopes were their favorite resorts. I have never seen or heard of 



1 Birds of the Northwest, 1874, p. 440. 



