The Valley Quails 



Taken near Santa Barbara 

 Photo by the A uthor 



A CUBIST FLIGHT 



VALLEY QUAIL TAKING TO WING 



In the illustration shown 

 on p. 1584 the nine eggs 

 were quite invisible from 

 above. On another occa- 

 sion, at the Point of Rocks 

 overlooking the Antelope 

 Plains in Kings County, I 

 found a deserted set of 

 Quail's eggs in an old Road- 

 runner's nest, placed eight 

 feet from the ground in a 

 cranny of the sandstone 

 cliff and quite unapproach- 

 able save by flight. 



Eggs are deposited 

 daily, from nine or ten to 

 twenty-odd, all told, with perhaps an average of thirteen or fourteen; and 

 incubation, which is undertaken only upon the completion of the set, lasts 

 from 21 to 23 days. The youngsters "run from the shell," and although 

 they do not fly for a week or ten days thereafter, they are so well able 

 to care for themselves that their parents rarely deem it necessary to em- 

 ploy decoy tactics upon the appearance of danger. There are solicitous 

 cries, indeed, and warnings to keep still, but the babies know so well 

 the value of their protective coloration that after a momentary scuttling 

 for cover, they become immovable and invisible and all but undiscover- 

 able. When the enemy has gone, the mother returns circumspectly with 

 low anxious cries, pit, pit, pit, upon which the chicks release themselves 

 one by one from the all-obliterating embrace of the mottled earth and 

 go scurrying to safety. An observer, Mr. F. X. Holzner, of San Diego, 

 reporting in the Auk, 1 tells of very different behavior under imminent 

 danger: "While collecting birds near Lakeside on June 5, 1895, I walked 

 unsuspectingly upon a bevy of Valley Partridges consisting of an old 

 male and female with about fifteen young ones. They were in the crevice 

 of a fallen Cottonwood tree. On my stepping almost upon them, the male 

 bird ran out a few feet and raised a loud call of ca-ra-ho; while the female 

 uttered short calls addressed to her brood. Seeing us, she picked up a 

 young one between her legs, beat the ground sharply with her wings, and 

 made toward the bush in short jumps, holding the little one tightly be- 

 tween her legs, the remainder of the brood following her." 



Several instances have come to notice of Valley Quails which have 

 nested at a considersble distance above the ground. One such was fur- 



1 Auk, Vol. XIII., June, 1896. p. 81. 

 1582 



