FOOD HABITS. 



53 



Fig. 4.— Seed of mayweed (Anflie- 

 mis cotula). (From Bull. 38, Ne- 

 vada Agricultural Experiment 

 Station.) 



41.89 per cent of the annual food. Seeds of compositse yield 5.55 

 per cent, such injurious weeds as thistles making up the largest part 

 of this percentage. The thistles most often eaten are Gentaurea melt- 

 tensis, C. americana, C. solstitialis, Ma- 

 riana mariniana, Sonchus sp., and Car- 

 duus sp. 31. mariniana has the largest 

 seeds. Ninety of these had been eaten by 

 a quail shot by F. E. L. Beal at Hay- 

 wards, Cal., August 15, 1903. The seeds 

 of the bur thistle {Gentaurea melitensis) 

 are smaller and have a hook at one end 

 and a set of spines like a paint brush at 

 the other. They are, perhaps, most liked 

 of all composite seeds. From 500 to 800 

 are often eaten at a meal. The destruc- 

 tion of this seed is highly beneficial, 



for the bur thistle is troublesome to farmers. 

 Wild carrot {Daucus carota), tar weed (Madia 

 sativa), wild lettuce {Lactuca sp.), mayweed 

 (Anthemis cotula), and marsh elder {Ira xanthi- 

 folia) furnish most of the remaining seeds of 

 composite plants. Tar weed is a favorite source of 



»^m I food, and one stomach, collected at Watsonville, 

 W ' Cal., by J. S. Hunter, contained 700 of these seeds. 

 J ,i* Another stomach, from the same place, held 2,000 



tiny seeds of dog fennel, or mayweed. (Fig. 4.) 



From seeds of plants belonging to the spurge 

 family {Evphorhiacea^) come 5.85 per cent of the 

 annual food. Spurges, particularly Groton setige- 

 riis, commonly known as turkey mullein, are a staple 

 with the California quail as with most other seed- 

 eating birds. So fond are the quail of turkey 

 mullein that their crops are often completely 

 distended with the seeds, sometimes from 500 

 to 900 to a bird. Turkey mullein is a prostrate 

 plant covered with a whitish, woolly pubes- 

 cence, and often used by the Indians to poison 

 fish. Seeds of alfilaria {Erodium cicutarium 

 and other species) , which is both a weed and a 

 forage plant, are eagerly sought. They are 

 lance-shaped, furnished with a long, elaborate, 

 corkscrew awn ending in a thin spine. They burrow into sheep's 

 wool and even pierce the skin. The alfilaria is one of the few seeds 

 of the West that all seed-eating birds consume. The plant is very 



Fig. 5.— Seed of alfi- 

 laria {Erodium ci- 

 cutarium). (From 

 Bull. 38, Nevada 

 Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station.) 



Fig. 6.— Seed of Wack mus- 

 tard (Brassica nigra). 

 (From Bull. 38, Nevada 

 Agricultural Experiment 

 station.) 



