EILLDEER 267 



minute searching was necessary before the nest was actually located. The 

 sitting bird never flew up directly from the nest; but always when the 

 observer was yet 50 yards or so away she (or he) slipped quietly off and 

 slunk along for 50 or 100 feet with head depressed. Then the bird Avould 

 begin to cry and call and presently fly off with a great clamor, soon to be 

 joined by the other of the pair. The two would then act greatly concerned 

 no matter where the observer went so long as he remained on the flat. 

 The initial 'sneak' of the sitting bird was the critically valuable ruse, but 

 the tactics all through were unquestionably effective. The nest was found 

 to consist of a slight depression in the gravelly and pebbly ground of the 

 open river bottom. The depression was sprinkled with grayish tips of a 

 dead and withered weed and this lining was the only feature which 

 rendered the spot at all different from its surroundings. There was only 

 one egg; yet the bird had been sitting on it persistently during the pre- 

 ceding two days. The egg showed no evidence of incubation and was likely 

 infertile. Ordinarily 4 eggs constitute a set. Less often there are 3 and 

 rarely 2. Another pair of Killdeer in the neighborhood behaved as though 

 they had their nest on a bit of ground closer to the river, but no search 

 was made for it. 



One bird of the pair which owned the nest with one egg was seen 

 repeatedly to squat down on the ground, a long distance from its nest, 

 and to vibrate the tail slightly, at the same time uttering a low crooning 

 trill. Another bird in a plowed field in the same general region did the 

 same, as did also a Killdeer seen on Blacks Creek near Coulterville a few 

 days later. Evidently birds of this species are thoroughly conscious of 

 being watched and go through a variety of deceptive tactics in an attempt 

 to mislead anyone who even distantly approaches their nests. 



At Walker Lake, September 14, 1915, a Killdeer was seen in a fenced 

 pasture, while in early July of the same year one was repeatedly flushed 

 from a certain area on Tuolumne Meadows near the Sierra Club head- 

 quarters at Parsons Lodge. The behavior of the latter bird suggested 

 nesting, but no mate was seen. Proof of the nesting of the Killdeer at so 

 high an altitude remains yet to be obtained. 



The species was seen along the banks of the Merced River in Yosemite 

 Valley, June 20 to 25, 1893 (Emerson, 1893, p. 178), and there is the 

 possibility that nesting has occurred there. 



Mountain Quail. Oreortyx picta plumifera (Gould) 



Field characters. — A quail larger than Valley Quail; sexes alike; a long slender, 

 usually backward-directed, black plume on head. Bands of black, white, and chestnut 

 on sides of body; throat chestnut; head, breast, and forepart of back, bluish slate; 

 rest of back and wings, olive brown; belly whitish. Escapes usually by running; flight 



