8 



GAME, AQUATIC, AND BAPACIOUS BIRDS. 



in a limited area. Nearly all the complaints against the quail for 

 eating fruit are that it visits vineyards in immense numbers and eats 

 grapes. When thousands visit a vineyard, even if only occasionally, 

 and each bird eats or spoils at least one grape, the result is disastrous. 

 An observer states that he once saw a flock of about 1,000 quail 



^ _ ^ I1J - B eating Zinfandel 



grapes in a vineyard 

 in the central part of 

 the State, and an- 

 other says that in 

 southern California 

 he has seen as many 

 as 5,000 feeding up- 

 on Muscat grapes. 

 In the writer's inter- 

 views with Califor- 

 nia fruit growers, 

 only one mentioned 

 the quail as harmful. 

 His ranch was situ- 

 ated along the hills 

 on the side of a nar- 

 row valley, adjacent 

 to wild grazing land 

 with much chapar- 

 ral and forest, among 

 which the quail 

 lived. In this case 

 the annual loss was 

 estimated at 2 or 3 

 tons of grapes. 



In the laboratory 

 investigation of the 

 food of the Califor- 

 nia quail 619 stom- 

 achs were examined. 

 They were collected 

 in every month ex- 



FiG.2.-California quail. cept May ^ but only 



one was obtained in March. The other montns are well represented. 

 Animal food, principally insects, amounts to but 3 per cent, and 

 most of this was found in the stomachs of young birds, mere brood- 

 lings. Vegetable food amounts to 97 per cent and consists mainly 



497 



