588 



HISTORY OP PASADENA. 



patch is bordered by a 

 white band. The plume 

 is black, and composed of 

 two slender feathers from 

 three to four inches long. 

 The two sexes are very 

 similar in coloration. The 

 call of the mountain part- 

 tridge is very loud and 

 resonant, but not as pleas- 

 ing as that of the valley 

 partridge. It is common 

 on Mount lyOwe and Wil- 

 son's peak, but is very 

 hard to hunt on account 

 of the high brush. The 

 mountain partridges go in 

 flocks, and their habits are 

 similar to those of the 

 "valley quail," as the 

 California partridge is 

 commonly called. 



Note.— The quail holds 

 such an important place 



From "Land of Sunshine. " Oct., 1894. „ ».: „ 'Ul^Ar- 



CALIFORNIA QUAIL. ^moug our nativc birds 



Photo, life size, from one the prize-winner birds at the World's that I qUOtC the follOW- 



icago, 1892-93. ^^^ additional account of 



it from Van Dyke's " Southern California."— Ed. 



"The notes of the valley quail are quite varied; and even the same 

 bird often varies within five minutes both the tone and accent of every note. 

 The most common call of this quail is a clear, far-reaching 0-hi-O, repeated 

 four or five times in quick succession. Often the tone is changed so that it 

 sounds more like ka-loi-o. Often the accent is shifted from the middle 

 syllable to the first and last syllables, so that it sounds like tuck-a-hee. 

 Again the stress is laid so heavily upon the second syllable that the other 

 syllables are scarcely heard, and the whole sounds like k-woick-iik ; and 

 again the last syllable is omitted entirely, and the whole becomes a low 

 k-woick. This is the call of the different members of the flock to each other 

 when scattered, of the old hen to her chicks, and of the male and female to 

 each other when separated. Should the winter rain-fall be insufficient to 

 make an abundance of grass and seeds, this quail does not pair off and 

 breed, but remains unmated in the large bands in which it has been all 

 winter,— a curious case of instinct, shown also by the hares, squirrels, 

 gophers and bees, all of which decline to increase. But after two or three 

 good seasons in succession, the numbers of the valley quail iu many parts 

 of Southern California are incredibly great. When the seed of the alfileria 



