CALIFOKNIA QUAIL. 9 



CALIFORNIA QUAIL. 



(Lophortyx californicus and vallicola.) 



The California quail (see frontispiece) is common and generally 

 distributed over the State west of the Sierra, except at the higher 

 altitudes, and is especially abundant in the fruit-raising sections. 

 Like the bobwhite of the East, this quail never goes far from cover, 

 and it delights to dwell on unimproved land where trees and chap- 

 arral alternate with small areas of open ground. In settled regions 

 it is somewhat domestic in habits and soon becomes accustomed to 

 living in orchards, gardens, and cultivated grounds. The writer has 

 seen a female sitting upon her eggs in a garden within 30 feet of a 

 house, between which and the nest carriages and foot passengers 

 passed many times eactuday. In winter a covey frequently feeds 

 with the farmer's chickens, and if not disturbed will continue to do 

 so until pairing time. 



The natural food of the quail consists of the seeds of that vast 

 group of plants known as weeds, with a little foliage of the same, 

 especially in winter, when the leaves are young and tender. Con- 

 sidering how small is the amount of fruit usually found in the stomach 

 of this bird, it is a surprise to learn that it sometimes does serious 

 damage to vineyards. Investigation, however, shows that, as in 

 most other similar cases, the injury results only when too many 

 birds gather in a limited area. Nearly all the complaints against 

 the quail for eating fruit are that it visits vineyards in immense 

 numbers and eats grapes. When thousands visit a vineyard, even if 

 only occasionally, and each bird eats or spoils at least one grape, the 

 result is disastrous. 



Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey, writing of the foothills of San Diego 

 County, says: 



In 1889 quail were so numerous that the dust of the roads was printed with their 

 tracks, and it was an everyday matter to have them start out of the brush and run 

 ahead of the horses quite unconcernedly, pattering along in their stiff, prim way, 

 with their topknots thrown forward over their beaks. In fact, the quail were so 

 abundant as to be a pest. For several years great flocks of them came down the 

 canyons to Major Merriam' s vineyard, where they destroyed annually from 20 to 30 

 tons of fruit. In one season, July to October, 1891, 130 dozen were trapped on his 

 ranch. The result of this wholesale destruction was manifest when I returned to 

 the valley in 1894. The birds were then rarely seen on the roads and seldom 

 flushed in riding about the valley. 



Another observer states that he once saw a flock of about a thou- 

 sand quail eating Zinfandel grapes in a vineyard in the central part 

 of the State, and another says that in southern California he has 

 seen as many as 5,000 feeding upon Muscat grapes. In the writer's 

 interviews with California fruit growers, only one mentioned the quail 



"Auk, XIII, p. 116, 1896. 



