530 GAME lilMDS OF CALIFOENIA 



young quail are able to fly. John Muir (1901,. pp. 223-224) thus 

 describes the nesting of some California Quail on his place at, Mar- 

 tinez, Contra Costa County : 



One year a pair nested in a straw pile within four or five feet of the stable 

 door, and did not leave the eggs when the men led the horses back and forth 

 within- a foot or two. For many seasons a pair nested in a tuft of pampas grass 

 in the garden ; another pair in an ivy vine on the cottage-, roof, and when the 

 yoimg were hatched, it was interesting to see the parents getting the fluffy dots 

 down. They were greatly excited, and their anxious calls ana directions to their 

 many babes attracted our attention. They had no great difficulty in persuading' 

 the yoimg birds to pitch themselves from the main roof to the porch roof among 

 the ivy, but to get them safely down from the latter to the ground, a distance of 

 ten feet, was most distressing. It seemed impossible the frail soft-things could 

 avoid being killed. The anxious parents led them to a point above a spiraea bush, 

 that reached nearly to the eaves, which they seemed to know would break the fall. 

 Anyhow, they led their chicks to this point, and -with infinite coaxing and encour- 

 agement got them to tumble themselves off. Down they rolled and sifted through 

 the soft leaves and panicles to the pavement, and, strange to say, all got away 

 unhurt except one that lay as if dead for a few minutes. When it re-rived, the 

 joyful parents -with their brood fairly launched on the journey of life, proudly 

 led them down the cottage hill. . . . 



Even as early as the first of July the different family broods begin 

 to unite into larger assemblages. Sometimes the young composing such 

 a be-vy are not all of the same a^e, but range from chicks barely fledged 

 to half gro-wn birds (A. K. Fisher, 1893a, p. 28; and authors). Grin- 

 nell and Swarth (1913, p. 231) record broods of young at Banning, 

 Riverside County, in juvenile plumage as early as June 8 (1908), 

 and in the San Jacinto Valley the same -writers found fully plumaged 

 young-of-the-year and half grown young birds together during the first 

 ■week in September. Both parents assist in rearing their offspring. 

 The male, -while spending a considerable portion of his time in sentinel 

 duty, also forages -with his brood. 



The Valley and California quails are believed to be more exclu- 

 sively vegetarian than any other of our game birds, save those of the 

 pigeon family. The United States Bureau of Biological Survey, in 

 an examination of 619 stomachs (representing both subspecies), 

 found (Judd, 1905, pp. 47-56 ;Beal, 1910, pp. 9-14) that only about 

 3 per cent of the food consisted of animal matter. The remaining 97 

 per cent was vegetable material and consisted of 2.3 per cent fruit, 

 6.4 per cent grain, about 25 per cent grass and other foliage, and 62.5 

 per cent seeds. The animal food comprised chiefly insects, and of 

 these, ants were most frequently present. Some beetles, bugs, cater- 

 pillars, grasshoppers, flies, spiders, "thousand-leggers," and snails 

 were also found in the stomachs examined. A case is cited by BeaL 

 (1910, p. 10) of a brood of young quail feeding extensively on black 

 scale. ' 



