VALLEY QUAIL 515 



brown; throat whitish, with narrow brown streaks. Total length 9.50-10.50 

 inches (241-266 mm.) (ten specimens); folded wing 4.05-4.30 (102.8-109.0); 

 bill (tip to cere) 0.38-0.44 (9.6-11.2); tarsus 1.13-1.25 (28.6-31.8) (ten speci- 

 mens); all from California. Juvenile plumage, both sexes: Similar to adult 

 female but with topknot still shorter and lighter brown; throat ashy brown, 

 not streaked; feathers of upper surface grayish brown, with white shaft 

 streaks and mottlings of pale brown and black; tail gray, barred interruptedly 

 with blackish and dull white; flight feathers brownish gray, extensively marked 

 with light brown and tipped with whitish; lower surface pale ashy brown, the 

 breast with wedge-shaped markings of dull white, and remainder with dull 

 whitish bars; belly almost plain grayish white. Natal plumage: General color 

 above buffy white tinged with rusty, and below dull white; an indistinct 

 dark brown spot over ear; a broad patch on back of head, dark brown, 

 bordered with pale buff; two stripes down back and one on each side beneath 

 wing, black; wing irregularly mottled with dark brown and buffy white; 

 breast and sides suffused with buff. 



Marks for field identification — The short, blunt-ended black topknot 

 (fig. 82), in association with the scaled pattern of markings across lower breast, 

 is distinctive. The closely related California Quail (Lophortyx californica cali- 

 fomica) is distinguished from the Valley Quail only by slightly darker general 

 coloration, especially on the back and sides, the latter being a warm brown 

 (pi. 1) instead of grayish brown. The Catalina Island Quail (Lophortyx cali- 

 fornica catalinensis) is also darker, and in addition is slightly larger espeaially 

 as regards feet. From the Mountain Quail the valley species is known by 

 smaller size, shorter, blunt-ended topknot, and presence of scaling on the 

 belly; and from the Desert (Gambel) Quail, by absence of rich chestnut on sides, 

 and presence of scaled pattern across lower breast. 



Voice — When disturbed: a sputtering pit-pit-pit, or whit-whit-whit; an 

 assembly call variously interpreted: ca-loi'-o, o-hi'-o, and tuck-a-hoe', most often 

 come-right' -here, emphasized on the middle syllable. When on guard during 

 the breeding season the male bird utters a single loud kayrh at intervals. 



Nest — Usually a mere depression in the ground, lined sparingly with grass 

 and weed stems; occasionally a more substantially built affair, though still 

 relatively crude, of the same materials, and placed on a log, stump, or in a 

 brush pile; rarely in trees or other situations above ground. 



Eggs — 6 to 28, usually 13 to 17, pointedly oval, measuring in inches, 1.10 to 

 1.40 by 0.84 to 1.02 (in millimeters, 27.9 to 35.6 by 21.3 to 26.0), and averaging 

 1.24 by 0.95 (31.6 by 24.1) (three sets, 45 eggs, from Nevada County); creamy 

 white in color, spotted and blotched with light golden brown. 



General distribution — Interior valleys and foothills of the Pacific district, 

 from the vicinity of Klamath Lake, southern Oregon, south throughout Cali- 

 fornia (except the northern coast strip and southeastern desert region) and 

 throughout Lower California to Cape San Lucas; east to extreme western 

 Nevada. Introduced into many other parts of the West, where now well 

 established. 



Distribution in California — Abundant resident of the semi-arid valley 

 and foothill regions, in other words, throughout the state, except in the narrow 

 northwest coast strip (fog belt) from northern San Luis Obispo County to the 

 Oregon line, and the eastern portions of the Mohave and Colorado deserts. 

 Common in the Modoc region of northeastern California and thence south 

 along the east slope of the Sierra Nevada to Owens Valley and the desert 

 ranges to the eastward towards Death Valley; occurs also out onto the deserts 



