48 BOB WHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OP UNITED STATES. 



during the last week of May in Tulare County, Cal., by J. E. McLel- 

 lan. The eggs usually number 12 to 15, and are white or buff with 

 spots. 



These birds take kindly to civilization, and flocks are not rarely 

 seen in the suburbs of large towns, where they range through the 

 gardens and orchards. They often nest close to farm buildings, and 

 W. Otto Emerson states that a pair nested within a rod of his front 

 door, though nearly every hour people and vehicles were passing 

 within four feet of the nest. 



Instead of spending the night in a circle on the ground, like the 

 bobwhite, the California quail chooses much safer places and roosts 

 in bushes or low thickly foliaged trees. This quail is even more con- 

 fiding than the bobwhite, and frequently comes about farm buildings 

 to eat with the chickens. It has been known to lay in confinement, 

 and appears to yield readily to semidomestication. 



The valley quail has acquired the interesting habit of posting sen- 

 tinels when feeding, which is described in detail by John J. Williams. 

 Mr. Williams observed a flock enter a field and begin to feed, while a 

 sentinel took his station in a peach tree and scanned the country 

 roimd about for danger. Presently he was relieved by a second bird, 

 who took up a position on a brush pile and a little later was relieved 

 by a third, who kept guard while the other two fed with the flock." 



Writing in 1891 Clark P. Streator says that about 100,000 are sold 

 each year in the San Francisco market. It is not a perfect game bird, 

 for it does not lie well to a dog, and when once flushed has a habit of 

 running that is exasperating to the sportsman. The best way to hunt 

 these quail is to keep the dog at heel and to run down the birds. This 

 is likely to make them take wing and to break up the covey. The 

 same result may be accomplished also by discharging the gun in the 

 air. When a covey has been scattered in suitable cover they will lie 

 well enough to a trained dog to give the hunter considerable sport, 

 though it is poor in comparison with that afforded by the bobwhite. 

 The beauty of this quail, its pleasant call notes, and its confidence in 

 man make it a favorite, except where it damages the grape crop. In 

 fall and winter where it is abundant hundreds of birds unite in great 

 packs. Bendire, writing in 1892, says that within a decade packs of 

 500 were often found, but that at that time coveys even of 50 were 

 rare in most places." In the fall of 1891 they were still very abun- 

 dant on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, where E. W. Nelson, 

 of the Biological Survey, records their slaughter by pot hunters. 

 The hunters stationed themselves behind a brush blind near the one 

 spring where the birds came to drink. Thousands of them flocked 



« Condor, vol. 5, pp. 146-148, 1903. 



6 Life Hist. N. Am. Birds [I], p. 24, 1892. 



