bUALiJiD QUAIL. 61 



SCALED aUAIL. 



(CalUpeiila squamata.)'^ 



The ' cotton top,' or scaled quail, as it is commonly known, is 

 bluish gray on the back, with black-edged feathers on the under parts, 

 which appear like large scales. Its conspicuous white-tipped crest 

 has given it the local name of cotton top. It is found in southern 

 Colorado and in the Upper and Lower Sonoran zones from Arizona 

 to western and southern Texas and south to the Valley of Mexico. 

 The birds of the lower Rio Grande region are darker than those far- 

 ther west. According to Bendire, this quail lives on open arid plains 

 overgrown with yucca, cactus, and sagebrush, and often gathers in 

 coveys numbering 25 to 80. It lays about a dozen eggs, and he be- 

 lieves that two or three broods are reared in a season. The cock assists 

 in the care of the young, but not in incubation.'' 



FOOD HABITS. 



The food habits of this game bird are of especial interest. Stom- 

 achs and crops of 47 specimens have been examined, most of which 

 came from New Mexico, the others from Arizona and Texas. They 

 were collected as follows: January, 7; May, 1; June, 2; July, 3; 

 September, 13; October, 19, and November, 2. As with all other 

 gallinaceous birds, more or less mineral matter is swallowed, usually 

 small pieces of quartz. The food consisted of animal matter, 29.(5 

 per cent, and vegetable matter, 70.4 per cent. 



The food of the cotton top differs from that of all other American 

 quails in that it contains a large proportion of insects. These com- 

 prise no less than 29.03 per cent of its food, a percentage almost twice 

 as great as that of the bobwhite, although if more stomachs of the 

 present species had been available for examination the ratio might 

 have been different. HoAvever, the important fact is established that 

 this bird is a large consumer of insects, instead of being, like most 

 other western quail, isractically graminivorous. Of the insect food, 

 grasshoppers comprise 15.86 per cent; beetles, 10.43 per cent, and mis- 

 cellaneous insects, largely ants, 3.27 per cent. A few spiders also are 

 taken, but they constitute only 0.03 per cent of the food for the year. 

 The beetles are in the larval as well as the adult forms. The family 

 of ground beetles {Carabidce), a favorite one with terrestrial birds, is 

 well represented. A single beetle with a featherlike antenna, of the 

 family Pyrochrouhi\ had been eaten. Some longicorn beetles and 

 plant-eating scaraba^id beetles also were eaten. A bird collected in 



a The name of the species is used here to include both the typical scaled quail 

 (GalUpepla squamata) and the more restricted chestnut-bellied quail of south- 

 ern Texas (C s. castanogastris). 



6 Life Hist, N, A, Birds [I], pp. 18-20, 1892. 



b 



