CALIFORNIA QUAIL. 11 



Pulp and skins, identified as fruit only, were found in 27 stomachs, 

 and unknown seeds, probably those of some small fruit or berry, 

 occurred in 10 stomachs. It is evident that the percentage of any 

 one of the above is insignificant. Stomach examination throws no 

 new light upon the quail's grape-eating habits, except to show that 

 the ravages complained of are exceptional. That fruit does not con- 

 stitute any important part of the bird's annual food is clearly proved. 

 Grain was found in 133 stomachs, and constitutes 6.4 percent of 

 the food. It was distributed as follows: Corn in 14 stomachs, wheat 

 in 15, oats in 13, barley in 89, and rye in 2. The principal complaints 

 against the quail on the score of grain eating are that flocks sometimes 

 visit newly sown fields, and eat large quantities of the seed. Walter 

 E. Bryant says on this point: 



Two males which I shot one evening, as they were going to roost for the night, after 

 having been feeding on a newly sown field, contained the following, mainly in the 

 crop: (a) Two hundred and ten whole grains of barley, 6 pieces of broken barley, 



3 grains of 'cheat,' and 1 of wheat, besides a few barley hulls, some clover leaves, and 

 alfilaria; (6) one hundred and eighty-five whole grains of barley, 5 broken pieces, 



4 grains of 'cheat,' and 2 of wheat; also barley hulls, clover, and alfilaria. The flock 

 numbered nearly or quite 20 birds. a. 



Only one report accuses the bird of eating grain from the harvest 

 field. Mr. W. T. Craig, of San Francisco, writing to the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, says: 



I have observed the quail enter a field of wheat to the number of thousands, and had 

 they not been driven away they would have destroyed the whole crop. 



Stomach examination does not indicate any month in which grain 

 is eaten in excess of other food. January shows the highest per- 

 centage, 12.4, but November is nearly as high, while December, 

 although between the two, shows less than 3 percent. A little more 

 than 3 percent was eaten in February, and none at all in March and 

 April, though the newly sown grain would be accessible in one at 

 least of these months. June and July, the harvest months, show 

 respectively 4.1 percent and 10.7 percent. In fact the stomach record 

 plainly indicates that the quail does not make special search for grain, 

 but being naturally a seed eater takes grain when it comes in the way. 



The seeds of a multitude of plants which have no apparent useful 

 function except to increase by their decay the deposit of humus in the 

 soil constitute the staff of life of the quail. In this particular inves- 

 tigation they aggregate 62.5 percent of the food of the year. They 

 appear in stomachs taken in every month and reach a good per- 

 centage in, each, the only months that show much diminution in 

 quantity being January, February, March, and April, when new 

 forage partly replaces seeds. The percentage is highest in June, 85.9, 

 but shows no great falling off from July to December inclusive. 



a Zoe, IV, pp. 55-56, 1893-94. 



