MASKED BOBWHITE CALIFOENTA QUAIL. 47 



Arizona and northern Sonora, is sufficient guaranty that the birds 

 would thrive in cultivated sections anywhere in southern California 

 and the arid SouthAvest. It would be deplorable if so handsome and 

 useful a bird should be allowed to become extinct, and a determined 

 effort should be made to introduce it into suitable localities before it is 

 too late. 



Beyond what Herbert Brown has stated we have practically noth- 

 ing on this bird's habits. He has told us that, like all the birds of the 

 genus Colin lis. the males give the well-known ' bobwhite ' call, and he 

 translates their rallying note as ' hoo-we.' He examined the stom- 

 achs of three birds. The first contained mustard seed, chaparral ber- 

 ries, six or eight beetles, and other insects; the second only a single 

 grasshopper an inch long, and the third contained 20 ants, several 

 crescent-shaped seeds, and a large number of small, fleshy green 

 leaves. 



It is stated by Bendire that in Sonora Benson found these birds 

 only in fields where wheat and barley had been grown. Probably 

 then the bird's general habits may be safely assumed to be similar to 

 those of its relative, bobwhite. 



CALIFORNIA aXTAIL. 



(Lophorti/.r cdlifoni iciis. ) « 



The California quail is generally dispersed over California below 

 an altitude of 8,000 feet and extends into southern Oregon and west- 

 ern Nevada. It has been introduced into Washington and British 

 Columbia, and efforts to introduce it into the Hawaiian Islands also 

 have proved very successful, although of late years its nunibers 

 there have been much reduced by the mongoose, by which in time it 

 is likely to be exterminated. Two geographic forms of the bird are 

 recognized, a dark form and a light one, but as they do not differ in 

 habits they are not distinguished in the following account. It is a 

 beautiful bird with a most pleasing combination of colors and mark- 

 ings, its head being adorned ]>y a glossy black crest, narrow at the 

 base and gradually widening into gracefully recurving plumes, and 

 the markings on the underparts resembling scales. It frequents 

 brush-covered hillsides, canyons, thickets along water courses and 

 the borders of roads, as well as vineyards and other cultivated fields. 

 The nesting time of the species varies considerably according to 

 locality and conditions. According to E. A. Mearns it nests in March 

 and April in Ventura County, Cal. Nests containing eggs were found 



"This name is used here to cover both the typical California quail (Lopl'ortyx 

 californicus) and the paler, more southerly form, called the valley quail (L. c. 

 valUcola). 



