The Valley Quails 



Taken in the Ojai 



A GYPSY HOME 



Photo by Donald R. Dickey 



or leaving it irregularly irruptive or as a gloss; the breast of the female grayer, corre- 

 sponding to change in color of back) ; flanks likewise more grayish ; the ochraceous buff 

 of lower breast slightly paler; the stripe on inner tertials pale buffy to whitish. 



Status. — The progressive graying of this form follows the analogy of Oreortyx 

 picla confinis, but it has been carried much further and is more definitely established. 



General Range of L. c. vallicola. — Resident in Sonoran valleys and in foothills 

 from the Klamath Lake region of southern Oregon south to Cape San Lucas (except the 

 northwest coast district and the southeastern deserts) east to extreme western Nevada. 

 Now widely introduced throughout the West. 



Distribution in California. — Abundant resident at lower levels nearly through- 

 out the State, save as displaced by californica in the northwestern fog belt and by 

 gambeli in the eastern portions of the Mohave and Colorado deserts. Occurs, perhaps 

 less commonly, east of the Sierras south to Owens Valley and the eastern desert ranges 

 and extends its range over the western edges of the deserts, where it encounters, and 

 perhaps hybridizes with, Desert Quail. Found also along the seacoast from San Luis 

 Obispo County south. Introduced on San Clemente. 



Authorities. — Audubon (Perdix californica), Orn. Biog., vol. v., 1839, p. 152 

 (Santa Barbara); Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. viii., 1885, p. 355 (orig. desc. ; 

 type locality Baird, Shasta Co.); Williams, Condor, vol. v., 1903, p. 146 (use of sen- 

 tinels); Judd, U. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 21, 1905, p. 47 (food) ; Tyler, Pac. 

 Coast Avifauna, no. 9, 1913, p. 32 (San Joaquin Valley; habits, etc.). 



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