480 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 2, 1905, 
;; The Crow in Winter, 
While other birds migrate from necessity, the crow, 
I think, does so from choice. He either goes or stays as 
he thinks fit. 
Among the intelligences of the feathered tribe, there 
are but few that can compare with that of Corvus 
awiericanus. Chapman says he can talk. But if he can- 
not talk, he can certainly think, and to sorne purpose. 
Were it not so, he would have been exterminated long 
ago, for every man’s hand has been against him. To a 
sombre, bodeful appearance he adds the character of a 
thief, and then his voice! 
But really, after all, he is not as bad or undesirable as 
he is supposed to be, and, thanks to unprejudiced men 
of inquiring, scientific minds, his good or useful qualities 
are now coming to be known. But it is doubtful if the 
popular mind will ever completely overload the aver- 
sions and superstitions which the ages have piled up_ in 
regard to him and his family. 
However, C. americanus doesn’t care. He will go on 
living and being tolerably happy, despite our enmity, and 
there are certainly no grounds for believing that he is 
becoming scarcer in the land. 
I think I never saw so many crows around New York 
as I did last spring in Flatlands during the preparations 
for sowing. The fields were literally half black with 
Them. As long as the plowing merely was being done the 
attitude of the farmers toward them was one of friendly 
indifference ; but the moment the seed was in the ground 
war was declared. But I would bet a dollar that not 
half a dozen crows were shot during the season. It 
must be terribly exasperating to a farmer to find that 
when he goes out unarmed he can approach the maraud- 
ers within a few yards before they will stir; but no 
sooner does he appear with a gun than they are up and 
away. Or, if he should try to steal on them along a 
fence, an alarmed “ker-aw, caw !” frorn a well posted 
sentinel will sound long before he ge'ts within a shot, and 
effectually frustrate his design. 
From the spring until the fall our sable friend has an 
easy life of it, food being abundant. And I do not think 
that he considers the question of migration till the very 
last moment. Then he may decide to go or stay, as the 
signs which he knows so well appear to indicate a mild 
or hard winter. 
I have seen it stated that all our crows (f. e., the 
crows of this latitude) migrate in the fall, and that those 
we see in the depth of winter come from further north. 
This may be generally true, but it is not absolutely so, 
for a friend of mine who lives in Pennsylvania, tells me 
that a crow with a white feather in his tail, which was 
familiar to him during the summer, made his appear- 
ance several times during the winter. (It would seem 
by the way, that the white feather in this instance be- 
lied its proverbial significance.) 
Whether, however,' the crows we see in the depth of 
winter are our old familiars of the spring and summer, 
or strangers from the north, their work is cut out for 
them to keep the wolf from the door. For even in mild 
winters there are certain to be more or less prolonged 
periods of frost and snow. This is not so bad for little 
birds like the chickadees, who are satisfied with a few 
grubs or larvae, but for big voracious birds like the crows 
it is a very serious matter indeed. Fortunately for 
them, however, they have an omnivorous appetite. A 
chance potato, or apple, a dead bird, or rodent,; a fish 
cast up by the sea, or anything edible whatever- — all is 
welcome. Then as foragers they are unsurpassed. With 
the first light of dawn they leave their roost, -with a 
clamorous cawing, and scatter over the country. All 
day they ply their industrious search. You will see them 
in ones, or twos, or threes, never in a hurry, but always 
vigilant, with one eye open, as it were, for chance pro- 
vender, and the other for some lurking enemy. In very se- 
vere weather they will venture into farmyards to forage. 
But warily do they move about, avoiding especially any- 
thing that looks like a trap. Apropos, your correspond- 
ent, Mr. Charles A. Taft, notes that they would not go 
near the troughs which he erected for the feeding:- of 
quail. 
Only rarely do we come across a dead crow, and then 
he is pretty sure to be the victim of old age or disease. 
(His normal age, by the way, is supposed to be near a 
hundred.) Tough, tough he is, in sooth, and the popu- 
lar saying, “To^ eat crow,” has a most pointed signifi- 
cance. 
When day begins to decline, the various members of 
the roost or rookery start for home. Not as in the 
spring, referred to so felicitously by Tennyson in his 
line, 
“The many wintered crow that leads the clanging rookery home,” 
do they fly notv, but silently, and, as a rule, singly — or 
one behind another, at a long distance. The sight of 
the dark solitary bird winging ,its flight over the deso- 
late landscape has an effect which must have been dear 
to the superstitious imagination. ’ 
The wayfarer does not fly directly to his accustomed 
place of rest, but alights on some point of vantage, t6 
reconnoitre presumably. Others do likewise, and when 
all are assembled (if, perchance, all have escaped the 
hazards of the day), at a given signal from some recog- 
nized leader, they will arise, circle noisily over the roost 
and gradually drop down upon it. For a while the caw- 
ing is kept up, and then funereal silence succeeds. Every 
bird has found his perch, and ruffling his feathers, set- 
tles down to pass the winter night. 
There let us leave them ; but as we sit in our com- 
fortable rooms, or lie in our warm beds, let us waste no 
sympathy on them, for, though a crow may feel hungry, 
I doubt if he ever feels cold. ' Frank Moonan. 
The Quails of the United States. 
BY SYLVESTER D. JUDD, ASSISTANT, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
(Continued from page 411.) 
Gambel Quail (Lophortyx gambeli.) 
The Gambel quail in general appearance is much like 
the valley quail, but, among other differences, lacks the 
scale-like feathers of the lower parts and has consider- 
able chestnut along the flanks. It lives in the Lower 
Sonoran zone, from western Texas to southeastern Cali- 
fornia and from southern Utah and Nevada south 
through central Sonora, Mexico. The desert is its home, 
but it is rarely found far from water. Its favorite 
haunts are patches of bushy vegetation, such as mes- 
quite, mimosa, creosote and patches of prickly pear. It 
frequently takes up its abode about cultivated land, living 
in alfalfa fields or nesting in vineyards. 
An interesting account of the habits of the Gambel 
quail in the Pahrump Valley, Nevada, is given by E. W. 
Nelson : 
“I noticed that when a flock of quail came to feed on 
grain left by the horses an old male usually mounted tlie 
top of a tall bush close by and remained on guard for ten 
or fifteen minutes ; then, if everything was quiet, he 
would fly down among his companions. At the first 
alarm, the flock would take to the bushes, running swift- 
ly, or flying when hard pressed. They roosted in the 
dense bunches of willows and cottonwoods growing 
along the ditches. * * When feeding they have a 
series of low clucking and cooing notes which are kept 
up almost continually.” 
The love note, according to Coues, may be represented 
,in words as “killink, killink.” Nesting takes place in 
April, sometimes not till May. About a dozen eggs 
usually constitute a clutch. In sections, where this quail 
is still numerous the birds pack in bands of from loo to 
Soo after the breeding season. 
From the sportsman’s point of view the Gambel quail 
as a game bird does not approach the bobwhite. It will 
, sometimes lie to a dog fairly well, but as a rule it takes 
to. its legs with all haste and leaves the dog on point, 
to the vexation of the hunter. It is_, however, a useful 
species, ..which brightens the desert with its presence and 
contributes a welcome addition to the fare of the trav- 
eler. "While less valuable than the bobwhite as a de- 
stroyer of noxious insects and as an object of sport, this 
bird well deserves protection for its food value and its 
beauty. It thrives under desert conditions and might be 
successfully introduced in the arid regions of Colorado, 
New -Mexico and Texas. 
FOOD HABITS. 
Stomachs of twenty-eight birds collected mainly in 
Arizona and Utah, from January to June, have been ex- 
amined. Only 0.48 per cent, of the food consisted of 
insects ; the remaining 99.52 per cent, was vegetable mat- 
ter. Like the valley quail, this is one of our least insec- 
tivorous birds. Its insect diet includes ants, beetles, 
grasshoppers, leaf hoppers and stink bugs. Among the 
beetles are the western twelve-spotted cucumber beetle. 
The young chicks, however, will doubtless be found 
highly insectivorous and therefore useful. 
The vegetable food of Gambel quail was made up as 
follows: Grain, 3.89 per cent.; miscellaneous seeds, 31.89 
per cent., and leaves and plant shoots, 63.74 per cent. 
From the present investigation the bird appears less 
frugivorous than any of the other American quail, for not 
one of the twenty-eight stomachs contained fruit. Ob- 
servers, however, say that the bird is somewhat frugivor- 
ous, and no doubt in a country well stocked with berries 
and fruit it would rapidly develop a frugivorous taste. 
Baird; Brewer and Ridgway, for instance, state that dur- 
ing summer it makes its home in patches of Salanum and 
feeds on the tolerably palatable fruit, and also that it is 
known to eat gooseberries. Coues says: “In the fall it 
gathers cherries and grapes. * * * It visits patches 
of prickly pear to feed upon the soft juicy ‘Tunas’ that 
are eaten by everything in Arizona, from men and bears 
to beetles.” 
The grain eaten by the Gambel quail was corn, wheat 
and oats. In flocks numbering from 50 to 100, it feeds 
about grain stacks with domestic poultry. It is even 
more industrious as a browser on foliage than the valley 
quail. Succulent foliage and .shoots form 63.74 per cent, 
of its food. Much of this comes from alfalfa, bur 
clover and the foliage of other legumes. Vernon Bailey, 
of the Biological Survey, says that at St. Thomas, Ariz., 
in January, 1889, this quail fairly swarmed on alfalfa 
fields, feeding on the green leaves and pods. He found 
flocks of from twenty-five to fifty in such situations, and 
during a five minutes’ walk often saw a hundred birds. 
The same observer, when in Mohave county, Ariz., found 
that the bird fed principally on juicy plants when it could 
not procure water. At times it eats grass and its inflor- 
escence, and it has been known to devour showy flowers. 
In spring it shows a fondness for buds. Baird, Brewer 
and Ridgway note that then it feeds largely on the willow 
buds, which import to its flesh a distinctly bitter taste. 
The seed-eating habits of Gambel quail closely resemble 
those of the valley quail. Leguminous plants furnish the 
largest part of the seed food — 21.17 P^r cent, of the an- 
nual diet — alfalfa, bur clover and kindred plants appear- 
ing to be preferred, but cassias, acacias and lupines also 
are taken, as well as the beans of the mesquite, which in 
many places are a staple with birds and mammals. The 
seeds of alfilaria, another bird staple, furnish 2.28 per 
cent, of the year’s food. .Miscellaneous seeds form 8.44 
per cent. They are obtained from grasses, mallows and 
such cruciferous plants as mustard and peppergrass, also 
from chickweed and Atriplex. 
Mountain Quail (Oreortyx pictus.*) 
The mountain quail occurs in the forested mountains 
of the humid Transition Zone of the Pacific coast, from 
Santa Barbara, Cal., to "Washington, and in the moun- 
tains of the more arid Transition Zone on the west side 
of the Cascades in northern Oregon and south over the 
Sierra Nevada to northern Lower California. The birds 
of the Sierra Nevada winter at lower altitudes than they 
nest, but those of the coast mountains dO' not make this 
vertical migration. This species is the largest and among 
the handsomest of American quail, with two long jet 
black crest plumes and rich chestnut throat and flanks, 
the latter broadly banded transversely with spotless 
white. 
The nests of the mountain quail are placed pn the 
ground and usually contain ten to tw^elve eggs, which 
vary from pale cream color to a much darker hue. At 
Tillamook, Oreg., June 30 and July 4, 1897, A. K. Fisher 
found newly-hatched chicks; and at Donner, Cal., July 
II and 19, at an altitude ranging from 6,100 to 8,000 feet, 
Vernon Bailey found nine broods, varying in age from 
newly-hatched chicks to half-grown birds. Bendire, quot- 
ing L. W. Green, of the United States Fish Commission, 
says that the earliest date of the nesting of the plumed 
mountain quail {Oreortyx p. plumifcrus) known to him 
was April 15, and the latest, Aug. 15. He states also 
that the cock bird takes care of the young. Chester Bar- 
low, in writing of the habits of the mountain quail, says 
that at Fyffe, Cal., it begins to nest the last of May or 
early in June. All nests that he found were built in a 
*The name is. used here to cover both the typical dark birds of 
the hmnid coast forests (Oreortyx pictus) and the paler one (O. p. 
plumifenis) of the more arid Transition Zone in the Sierras and 
Cascades. 
Gambel Quail {Lophortyx gambeli). 
