The Valley Quails 



seeds; or it may be a bit of grain, together with such crawling insects as 

 come incidentally under review. The quantity and variety of weed- 

 seeds consumed by these birds is amazing. Beal lists 73 species of seeds 

 found in Quails' stomachs; and two birds, whose crop contents the in- 



Taken at Los Colibris 



Photo by the A ulhor 



A "STOLEN" NEST, IN THE GARDEN 



vestigator took pains to count, had about 2000 seeds each aboard. There 

 is industry for you! and mightily profitable labor at that — for the farmer. 

 If the day is warm, the middle portion is spent in retirement, again in the 

 thick foliage of a tree. The siesta finished, the birds venture out again 

 to provide another grist for their insatiable seed-hoppers, and to indulge 

 a dust-bath, such as all fowls dearly love. As the twilight hour approaches, 

 there is much scampering and calling, with some sportive pursuit, and 

 a night-cap drink before the company is bedded again under its coverlet 

 of thick green leaves. 



The Quail's year begins some time in March or early April, when the 

 coveys begin to break up and, not without some heart-burnings and fierce 

 passages at arms between the cocks, individual preferences begin to hold 

 sway. It is then that the so-called "assembly call" ku kwak' up, ku kwak' 



1580 



