food tendencies and to incorporate with it data thus far obtained by 
laboratory examination of a substantial series of Leia One of 
the most noteworthy contributions to the literature on the food of the 
species is that of Judd (7, pp. 61-63), wno reported on the contents of the 
stomachs end crops of 47 birds. This material has been reexamined by the 
writer and the results included among the data in tnis report. Other 
contributions, arranged chronologically, include ‘Abert (1), Cassin (5, 
pp. 129, 140), Ridgway (in 3, vol. 3, pp. 488-491), Stockwell (9), 
Bendire (4, p. 20), Tate (12), Bailey (2, p. 217), and Ortenburger and 
Little (8, p. 190). These writers have discussed the bird's food mainly 
in general terms. 
The present paper contains a summary of the analyses of the contents 
of the stomachs and crops of 258 adult and 9 immature scaled quail col- 
lected from mmerous localities, as follows; Arizona; Santa Rita Range 
Reserve about 30 miles south of Tucson, Sulphur Springs Valley, Huachuca 
fountains, Graham Gounty, Oracle, McNeal, and Chiricahue Mountains; New 
Mexico: Fort Sumner, Carlsbad, Albuduerdue, Hort Stanton, Roswell, Socorro, 
Hudson, mesa Rodondo, Tucumcari, Logan, Montoya, Santa Rosa, San Andres 
Mountains, Corona, Tularosa, Floyd, and Queen; Texas: Ozona, Mertzon, 
Marfa, Juno, and Lipscomb; Mexico: Sonora: and New York: 3 birds released 
in Suffolk County. 
FOOD OF ADULTS 
The different items of food noted in the stomachs and crops 
examined totaled 657, Of these, 310 were vegetable, and 347 were animal 
Matter, In table 1 only the 23 items that constituted 1 percent or more 
of the food are listed. 
Vegetable Matter 
As shown in the table, vegetable matter comprised 78,12 percent 
of the food. A great variety of items is represented, owing, no doubt, 
to the wide divergence in the character of the environments in which the 
stomach material was collected, as well as to the catholic tastes of the 
bird. In areas devoted to agriculture, grains were a conspicuous part 
of the food taken, Among these were oats (Avena sativa), 1.71 percent; 
kafircorn (Helcus sorghum), 5.44 percent; and wheat (Triticum spp.), 
2.e/ percent, In such areas scaled quail also ate seeds of weeds that 
commonly invade waste ground, sucn as amaranth (Amaranthus blitoides), 
1.58 percent; alfilaria (Hrodium cicutarium), 1.25 percent; croton 
(Groton texensis), 1.03 percent: buffalo burr (Solanum rostratum), 1.31 
+ 
L/ The writer acknowledges the assistance ef associates in the 
Bureau in connection with stomach analyses and identifications of insect 
material; and of D. M. Gorsuch, of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, 
and Paul Russell, of the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission, who collected 
much of the material used in the stomach analyses. 
igus 
