50 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES. 



miscellaneous leaf -eating beetles may be mentioned the brilliant Gas- 

 troidea ccesia. Conspicuous among the ground beetles eaten is the 

 ctommon Agmioderus pallipes, and among the useful predaceous lady- 

 birds the species Hippodmnia convergcns. Like the eastern bobwhite, 

 the California quail feeds on ants of the families Formicida and 

 MyrmicidcB. Sometimes 20 to 35 ants are taken at a meal. Of the 

 other Hymenoptera, gall insects (Cynipidce) and their galls make a 

 significant proportion. Caterpillars and their pupae are eaten. Cut- 

 worms (Agrotis), measuring worms {Geometridce) , sphinx caterpil- 

 lars (including Beilephila), and the cotton boUworm {Heliothis 

 ohsoleta) make up the greater part of this food. Like the bobwhite 

 again, this bird shows a relish for bugs. It eats leaf bugs {Capsidw), 

 bugs of the chinch bug family, such as Lygceus truculentis and L. 

 Mtriangularin, and stink bugs {Pentatomidm) , assassin bugs {Redu- 

 viida'), flat bugs (Aradidw) , burrower bugs (Crytomenus) , leaf hoiD- 

 pers (Jassidfr), tree hoppers [M embracidce) , plant lice, and bugs of 

 the genus Scolops (Fidgoridce). The miscellaneous animal matter 

 taken includes flies {Lucillia ccesar), spiders, and snails. 



Vegetable Food. 



The vegetable food of this quail amounts to 97.85 per cent of its 

 diet. The bird has an unsavory reputation among fruit growers, 

 especially the owners of vineyards. Relative to this subject. Miss 

 Florence A. Merriam, writing from San Diego County, Cal., says : 



In fact, the quail were so abundant as to be a pest. For several years great 

 flocks of them came down the canyons to Major Merriam's vineyard, where they 

 destroyed annually from twenty to thirty tons of fruit. In one season — July to 

 October, 1881 — one hundred and thirty dozen [1,560] were trapped on his ranch. 

 The result of this wholesale destruction was manifest when I returned to the 

 valley in 1894. The birds were then rarely seen on the roads and seldom flushed 

 in riding about the valley.o 



When this species becomes superabundant and plays havoc with 

 crops it is well to remember that it can be so easily checked. W. H. 

 Osgood, of the Biological Survey, has furnished the writer data on 

 the frugivorous habits of the quail in central California. In one 

 vineyard he saw a flock of about a thousand eating zinf andel grapes. 

 The birds do much damage in September, when the young are molt- 

 ing and they have collected in packs, as before described. 



Walter E. Bryant, writing of the damage to fruit, offers testimony 

 on the other side : 



In some parts of California there is a strong prejudice against the quail, 

 owing to alleged damage to the grape. The evidence which I have thus far 

 gathered shows that the quail do pick at the bunches of grapes, and not alone 



"Auk, XIIl, p. 110, 1896. 



