MOUNTAIN QUAIL 509 



Valley Quail, so that we may properly infer the reproductive rate in 

 the Mountain Quail to be the lower. Because of the shorter summer 

 season at the higher altitudes it is less likely that two broods are 

 regularly reared each season. Evidence in this regard is lacking, 

 save for a single statement by a correspondent of Bendire (1892, 

 p. 16) that in Shasta County two broods per season are raised. As . 

 against the claim of two broods, we may offer the following data: 

 Extreme dates for ten just-hatched, downy chicks (specimens in 

 Mus. Vert. Zool. and Grinnell coU.), representing as many broods, are 

 June 6 and July 5; the latest date for eggs as shown by our table is 

 August 15, but the next latest is July 6, for incubated eggs. On 

 October 7, near the Merced River above El Portal, Mariposa County, 

 a covey of two-thirds grown young was flushed from the roadside. 

 But we have no definite knowledge of the rate of growth of this 

 species of quail, so that the date of egg-laying in this case may have 

 been much earlier than some would infer. 



During July and August the young are very much in evidence 

 around mountain springs at the heads of ravines. Eight broods were 

 seen by H. C. Bryant (MS) during a ten days' stay in the first half 

 of August, 1914, near Cisco, Placer County. The young birds varied 

 from three inches in length to half the size of adults. The broods 

 were accompanied by one and often both of the parents. When dis- 

 turbed the adult bird would take some commanding position on a 

 log or rock, well sheltered by brush, and while watching the intruder, 

 would give voice to the following call of alarm: Ca-ca-ca-ca, ca-cr- 

 r-r-rS—a, ca-ca-ca-ca, ca^cr-r-r-ree-a. The young are adepts at hiding 

 and a person is likely almost to step upon them before they flush. 

 The half-grown young less often resort to running to escape pursuit 

 than in the ease of adults, but instead take to trees like grouse where 

 they sit motionless (Grinnell and Swarth, 1913, p. 229). Although, 

 as the summer advances, broods of young unite, the resulting aggre- 

 gations never reach the size of the big autumn flocks of the Valley 

 Quail. 



Williams (1902, pp. 65-66) gives the warning note of the Moun- 

 tain Quail as: cree-auk-cree-auk-cree-auk-a, and the call-note used in 

 keeping the flock together as kow, kow, kow, kow. The alarm notes 

 may , be otherwise described as low and turkey -like: gup-gup-gup, 

 que-ar, que-ar. When feeding undisturbed one can hear the birds 

 uttering many faint mellow conversational peeps. When flrst alarmed 

 perfect quiet may prevail, or only the sound of footfalls as the birds 

 scurry over the carpet of dead leaves, to be followed presently by the 

 startling burr of wings (J. Grinnell, MS). The male bird gives a 

 solitary far-reaching quee-ark or queerk from some fixed position as 

 on a log. One bird that was timed uttered this note at the following 

 intervals (in seconds): 7-6-8-5-8-6-7-5-7-9-9 (T. I. Storer, MS). 



