GAME, AQUATIC, AND KAPACIOUS BIRDS. 9 



of seeds of plants most of which are of noxious or troublesome 

 species. 



Animal food. Ants appear to be a favorite food. They were 

 found in 82 stomachs, and were eaten by adults as well as by young. 

 They amount, however, to less than 1 per cent of the whole diet. 

 The rest of the animal food aggregates a little more than 2 per cent 

 and is distributed as follows: Beetles in 30 stomachs, bugs (Hemip- 

 tera) in 38, caterpillars in 11, grasshoppers in 7, flies in 2, spiders in 6, 

 millepeds in 1, and snails in 2. The most interesting point in this 

 connection was the stomach of a broodling only 3 or 4 days old. 

 Besides several adult Hemiptera, some ants, caterpillars, and spiders, 

 and a few seeds, it contained 280 minute insects, which constituted 

 76 per cent of the stomach's contents, and were identified as an imma- 

 ture form of species of scale, Phenacoccus helianthi. 



In this connection the following extract from a letter dated at 

 Los Angeles, Cal., October 28, 1908, by Dr. W. G. Chambers to the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, is interesting: 



Last May during the hatching season one of my female quail died a week prior to 

 completing the hatch. An incandescent light of 8 candlepower was substituted, 

 the result being 15 baby quail, very wild at first, not understanding human sounds or 

 language, but finally becoming as docile as pet chickens. They were raised in my 

 back yard, running at large after the first week. 



A number of Marguerite bushes which grow in profusion in the yard were so infested 

 with black scale that I had decided to uproot them and had postponed doing so as the 

 little quail worked so persistently among the branches; upon investigation I discov- 

 ered them eating the scale and twittering happily; they would swallow the fully 

 developed scale and thoroughly clean the branches of all those undeveloped. 



The young in the first week of life eat animal matter to the extent 

 of from 50 to 75 per cent of the food, but by the time they are 4 

 weeks old they take little if any more animal food than the adults. ' 



Vegetable food. The vegetable part of the quail's food may be 

 divided into fruit, grain, seeds, and forage. Fruit appeared in 106 

 stomachs and aggregates 2.3 per cent of the yearly diet. It was 

 distributed as follows: Grapes in 7 stomachs, prunes in 9, apples in 

 3, rubus (blackberry or raspberry) in 4, olive in 1, elderberry in 21, 

 snowberry in 8, Manzanita in 2, huckleberry in 11, and rose haws in 3. 

 Pulp and skins, identified as fruit only, were found in 27 stomachs, 

 and unknown seeds, probably those of some small fruit or berry, 

 occurred in 10 stomachs. It is evident that the percentage of any 

 one of the above is insignificant. Stomach examination throws no 

 new light upon the quail's grape-eating habits, except to show that 

 the ravages complained of are exceptional. That fruit does not con- 

 stitute any important part of the bird's annual food is clearly 

 proved. 



37181 Bull. 49712 2 



