The Valley Quails 



of brush. The female sits closely once incubation has commenced, and 

 she appears to be much less sensitive to molestation than other gallina- 

 ceous birds. I nearly stepped on one coming down the trail off Mt. 

 Shasta in July, 1916. The bird flushed so sharply that I did step on an 

 egg which had rolled down into the path from a nest not over a foot away. 



Brood joins brood at the close of the nesting season after the fashion 

 of the Lophortyx Quails, but pictas never assemble in such numbers as 

 did our earlier californicas. When the berries of the upper levels have 

 been gleaned, the Mountain Quails begin a stately migration on foot to 

 the lower levels in order to avoid the heavy Sierran snows. At such times 

 they are said to be unwary, and even prefer the good walking of the open 

 road to a laborious threading of the sage-brush. Hunters used to take 

 advantage of this fact, and took excessive toll along certain well known 

 valley routes. Since market hunting was abolished, however, the Moun- 

 tain Quail population has been picking up. Although their broods are 

 smaller than those of the Valley Quail, their enemies are fewer and their 

 cover better. They are not great favorites with sportsmen, because 

 they will neither lie to a dog nor rise at close quarters, but go scurrying 

 away under the brush instead. When they do rise, however, it is with a 

 very impressive wing-burst, more nearly akin to that of the Ruffed Grouse 

 than that of a Valley Quail. 



Mountain Quails, especially the younger birds, take ready refuge in 

 trees, like fledgling grouse ; but whether they sleep there I am unable to 

 say. Mr. Frank Stephens (MS) says explicitly that they spend the 

 night roosting in the thickest available trees; but the authors of "The 

 Game Birds of California" declare, "This bird but seldom perches in 

 trees, and as far as we know the adults never roost in one at night." 

 It's up to you, dear reader. We don't pretend to know it all. 



No. 313 



California Quail 



A. O. U. No. 294. Lophortyx californica californica (Shaw). 



Synonyms. — Northern Valley Quail. California Partridge. 



Description. — Adult male: A narrow recurved crest of five or six closely super- 

 imposed feathers, glossy black; a patch involving chin, throat, and sides of head below 

 eye, glossy black; this bordered posteriorly by a broad line of white; another semilune 

 of white across crown and curving backward along sides of occiput; adjacent region 

 posteriorly black, changing to olive-brown of hind-crown and nape; forehead and fore- 

 crown buffy, finely pencilled with black; breast, narrowly, sides of breast, and the tail 

 slaty gray (Payne's gray); sides of neck and cervix broadly slaty gray, finely spotted 



1575 



