THE CALIFORNIA QUAIL 
By JOSEPH MAILLIARD 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 58 
Two 
Forms 
The California Quail — including under this name the two subspecies 
we have in the State — is one of the most interesting and most commonly 
met with of the birds of California. 
Along the more rainy and damper coast-belt, the Quail is of a darker 
hue and larger form ; while in the dryer interior and 
in the deserts, where the sun shines nearly every day 
in the year, and often shines intensely, it is somewhat 
smaller and paler. The darker bird is called the California Quail, and the 
paler one the Valley Quail. 
The range of one or the other of these ‘races’ or ‘subspecies’ extends 
almost throughout the State except at the higher elevations. From the 
lesser mountains of northern California to the waste areas of the southern 
deserts, from the wave-washed cliffs of the western seacoast to the foot- 
hills of the snow-capped Sierras, it is everywhere present in varying 
abundance. It is to be seen and heard amid the rocks and cactus of the 
Colorado Desert, where it thrives in friendly contest with its cousin, 
Cambers Quail ; among the vast sagebrush areas of central and southern 
California ; on the plains of the great valleys where green stretches of 
alfalfa are a striking contrast to the fields of golden grain waving in the 
summer breeze ; in the hills covered with live oak and chaparral near the 
coast; and among the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, up to a height 
of three or four thousand feet. In fact, wherever there is a little water 
to drink, a sheltered place to roost at night, and grain or grass-seeds 
for food, one is likely to meet this species — and it is a bird worth meeting ! 
Always sleek and well-groomed except when molting, with an air 
of sedate, but active, respectability, quick as a flash 
when danger threatens, the male seems ever proud of his^^PIumes 
his richer coloring and gracefully curved head-plumes, 
as he marches about or runs swiftly along in search of food, while his 
consort follows meekly in her more quiet garb. 
The Quail has several very distinct and differently used notes and 
calls. The call most commonly noticed is more like a rooster’s crow 
than a song, and is easily imitated by a child, a woman, or even by a man, 
if he has a good falsetto, and sounds something like kct-ka-kao, which 
is interpreted by various human beings to suit their fancy. Some declare 
that Mr. Quail says “Put that down !,” others that he distinctly means 
“Cut it out !,” while the hunters know that he says “You go’way !’’ But 
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