60 BOBWHITE AND OTHEK QUAILS OF UNITED STATES. 



6 in November. The food consisted of animal matter, 3 per cent, and 

 vegetable matter, 97 per cent. The animal food was made ujj of 

 grasshoppers, 0.05 per cent; beetles, 0.23 per cent; miscellaneous 

 insects, including ants and lepidopterous pupa?, 1.90 per cent; and 

 centipedes and harvest spiders {Phalangidai) , 0.82 per cent. Among 

 the beetles was a species of the firefly family {LampyridcB) , a ground 

 beetle {Garabidce), and a leaf beetle {Haltica sp.). Vernon Bailey 

 informs the writer that the young eat many ants. The vegetable 

 food consisted of grain, 18.20 per cent ; seeds, practically all of weeds 

 or other worthless plants, 46.61 per cent; fruit, 8.11 per cent; and 

 miscellaneous vegetable matter, 24.08 per cent. The grain included 

 wheat, corn, barley, and oats. Of the seed element the seeds of 

 grasses formed 7.78 per cent ; of legumes, 10.41 per cent ; of weeds of 

 the family Eicphorhiacem, 3.16 per cent; of alfilaria {Erodium 

 cicutarium), 2.76 per cent; and of miscellaneous weeds, 22.50 per 

 cent. The legume seeds include seeds of alfalfa, cassia, bush clover, 

 vetch, and lupine. The miscellaneous seeds come from wild carrot 

 (Daucus carota), tar weed {Madia sativa), Collomia sp., Amsinckia 

 sp., labiate plants, dwarf oak, snowbush {Ceanothus cordulatus), and 

 thistle. 



Concerning the feeding habits of mountain quail of the dry coun- 

 try {0. p. plumiferus), J. E. McClellan says: '' Their feeding hours 

 are early in the morning and just before sundown in the evening, 

 when they go to roost in the thick tops of the scrub live oaks. Their 

 feeding habits are similar to those of the domestic hen. They are 

 vigorous scratchers, and will jump a foot or more from the ground to 

 nip off leaves."" This bird is especially fond of the leaves of clover 

 and other leguminous plants. It feeds also on flowers, being known 

 to select those of Compositae and blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium) . 

 Flowers, leaves, buds, and other kinds of vegetable matter form the 

 24.08 per cent marked miscellaneous. The birds probably eat more 

 fruit than these stomach examinations indicate. Lyman Belding 

 says that this quail feeds on service berries, and that during certain 

 seasons it lives almost entirely on grass bulbs {Melica bidbosa) , which 

 it gets by scratching, for which its large, powerful feet are well 

 adapted. The fruit in its bill of fare includes gooseberries, service 

 berries {Amelanchier alnifolia), and grapes {Vitis calif ornica). 

 The bird is probably fond also of manzanita berries, for it is often 

 seen among these shrubs. 



1 MS. Records, Biological Survey. 



