Part 113

Female similar, without the white and black of the head; the feathers of the throat brownish-yellow, streaked with brown. The buff and orange-brown of the belly wanting. The crest short. Length, 9.50; wing, 4.32; tail, 4.12.

Young. Head as in the adult female. Upper parts pale brown, finely mottled transversely with black; scapulars and feathers of the back with yellowish-white shaft-streaks, widening at the end of the feather, and with a large black spot on each web.

Chick. Ground-color dingy white, tinged on the head, wings, and upper parts with pale rusty. A broad stripe on occiput and nape umber-brown; upper parts with rather confused and rather elongated mottlings; an indistinct auricular spot. Beneath plain dull white.

HAB. Valley portions and foot-hills of the Pacific Province of the United States, south to Cape St. Lucas.

HABITS. This beautiful species, according to Dr. Newberry, is called the Valley Quail in California, to distinguish it from the Plumed Quail, which inhabits the hills and the highlands, and is called the Mountain Quail. The common Valley Quail of California inhabits the prairies and the grain-fields of the cultivated districts, and frequents the thickets which border the streams, usually in coveys of from a dozen to a hundred individuals, except during the breeding-season, when it is found only in pairs. Like the eastern Quail, the male bird is very fond of sitting on some stump or log projecting above the grass and weeds which conceal his mate and nest or brood, and, especially in the early morning, uttering his peculiar cry,—whistle it can hardly be called. This note is spoken of as being rather harsh and disagreeable than otherwise, and somewhat resembling that of some of the Woodpeckers. Dr. Newberry adds that it may be represented by the syllables kûck-kûck-kûck-kā, the first three notes being rapidly repeated, the last prolonged with a falling inflection. As a game bird he regards this Quail as inferior to the eastern one, though of equal excellence for the table. It does not lie so well to the dog, does not afford as good sport, and takes to a tree much more readily than the eastern Quail. It is found in all the valleys of California and Oregon, both those in the interior and those that open on the coast. It is not found in the deep forests, nor on the mountains at any considerable elevation, nor in the interior basin where water and vegetation are scarce. Specimens were taken by his party in different parts of the Sacramento Valley, at Fort Jones, and in the Willamette Valley, near the Columbia. In all these there was no appreciable difference. This bird is said to make no elaborate nest, but to lay a large number of eggs on the ground, which are generally hatched in June. This bird is susceptible of domestication, and forms quite an ornament for parks, in which they thrive with proper care.

Dr. Suckley states that this Quail was successfully introduced into Washington Territory, on the prairies near Puget Sound, in the spring of 1857, by Governor Charles H. Mason and Mr. Goldsborough. Two lots were introduced, and by the following winter had increased largely. Mr. Gibbs mentions having met with great numbers of these birds on Russian River in 1851, and again on the Klamath in 1852. They were very tame, but took to the bushes when disturbed, perching on the limbs. Like the Sharp-tailed Grouse, they gathered in large flocks. This was the case even when young, and it has been thence inferred that several females belong to one male, and with their broods all run together.

Dr. Kennerly states that his party first met with this beautiful Partridge upon reaching the waters of the Mohave River, and during the march up the stream he found it very abundant, as well as among the settlements along the coast. He could perceive no difference in its habits from those of Lophortyx gambeli.

Dr. Heermann states that he found the California Quail very numerous as far south as Vallecita, where commences the desert that extends to the Colorado, forming an apparently impassable barrier between it and the closely allied species, Gambel’s Partridge. When flushed from the ground, it invariably flies to the trees, if in a wooded country, where it squats so closely lengthwise on a branch that it can rarely be seen when thus hidden. It will not lie to a dog, but runs until it is forced to fly. It may be readily tamed, and in California is often domesticated with the poultry. Several years since, according to Dr. Heermann, an attempt was made to introduce these birds into Long Island, which at first promised to be successful; but unfortunately, after the first season, they were all exterminated by the gunners for the New York market.

Mr. Ridgway met with this species only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, and at an altitude of not more than four or five thousand feet. He had no opportunity to learn anything in regard to its habits, but was enabled to listen to its notes. The call-note of the male is very peculiar, and resembles somewhat the syllables kuck-kuck-kēē, the accent being on the last syllable. The common note of the male bird, when disturbed with its mate in the bushes, and probably having a brood of young in the vicinity, was a sharp pit, precisely like the common note of the Cardinal Grosbeak.

The nest of this bird is made in the open field, or at the foot of a bush, and is composed of loose grasses arranged without much care. The eggs are said to be twelve or sixteen in number, and are yellowish or grayish white, spotted and dashed with dark brown or burnt-umber.

Mr. Titian R. Peale, in his Notes on the Wilkes expedition, mentions observing this species in the mountainous regions of Southern Oregon, near the 43d degree of north latitude, which he regarded as their farthest northern range. He frequently observed them collecting at night to roost in trees. At such times their call-note was plaintive, and had a slight resemblance to the words cut-cut-cut-me-too. Specimens of this bird were taken alive, kept by members of the expedition, and brought to the city of Washington by a route equal to the circumference of the globe, where they produced one brood of young.

Soda Lake, the “sink” of the Mohave River, the bed of which is usually quite dry, except in spots, for many miles, is said by Dr. Coues to be just where this species and the L. gambeli find a neutral ground, the western bird following the watercourses until arrested by the desert.

Mr. Xantus found this Quail breeding in great abundance at Cape St. Lucas. In one instance he found four eggs on the bare sand, under a pile of driftwood, without any trace of a nest. In another, three eggs were found on the bare ground, under a fallen cactus. In a third case there were nine eggs, also laid on the bare ground, but in the shade of a jasmine-bush. They were frequently found sheltered under piles of driftwood.

The eggs of this Quail are subject to great variations in marking, and also differ somewhat in size. They are sharply pointed at one end and rounded at the other. One egg, measuring 1.30 in length by 1.00 in breadth, has a ground-color of a creamy white, freckled with markings of a uniform shading of an olivaceous-drab. Another, measuring 1.22 by .91 inches, has the ground-color of the same, but the markings are larger and more confluent, and their color is a rusty drab. A third is 1.18 by .95 inches; ground-color a creamy white marked by large scattered spots of a chestnut-brown.

Lophortyx gambeli, GAMBEL.

GAMBEL’S QUAIL.

Lophortyx gambeli, “NUTTALL,” GAMBEL, P. A. N. S. Philad. I, 1843, 260.—MCCALL, P. A. N. S. V, June, 1851, 221.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 645.—IB. Mex. B. II, Birds, 22.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1866, 28(Rio Grande to Nueces; breeds).—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 94 (Fort Whipple, Arizona).—IB. Ibis, 1866, 46 (habits).—GRAY, Cat. Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 79.—HEERM. P. R. R. R. X, C, 19.—IB. X, S, 60.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 553. Callipepla gambeli, GOULD, Mon. Odont. pl. xvii.—CASS. Illust. I, II, 1853, 45, pl. ix. Callipepla venusta, GOULD, P. Z. S. XIV, 1846, 70.

SP. CHAR. General color cinereous; abdomen plain whitish; inner or upper webs of tertials broadly edged with white. Elongated feathers of the sides bright chestnut with a medial streak of white.

Male. The ash on the breast of a bluish cast, and the whitish of the belly strongly tinged with yellowish-buff, especially anteriorly; abdomen with a black patch. Anterior half of the head, and whole throat, deep black, bordered posteriorly with two broad, well-defined stripes of white,—the upper of these crossing the middle of the vertex and running backward above the auriculars to the occiput; the other beginning at the posterior angle of the eye and running downward. Vertex and occiput bright rufous, bounded anteriorly and laterally with black. Crest of black elongated, club-shaped, and considerably recurved feathers, springing from the vertex just behind the black bar, one and a half inches long. Wing, 4.70; tail, 4.30; bill, .50 long, and .25 deep; tarsus, 1.15; middle toe, 1.15.

Female. Head plain grayish, without white, black, or rufous; no black on abdomen, which also lacks a decided buff tinge; the cinereous of breast without bluish cast. Crest dusky, less than one inch long. Wing, 4.55; tail, 4.20.

Young. Upper parts ashy brown, minutely and indistinctly mottled transversely with dusky; scapulars and wing-coverts with white shaft-streaks, the former with pairs of dusky spots. Breast and sides with obsolete whitish bars on an ashy ground.

Chick. Dull sulphur-yellowish; a vertical patch, and two parallel stripes along each side of the back (four altogether), black. (Described from Grayson’s plate.)

HAB. Colorado Valley of the United States; north to Southern Utah, and east to Western Texas.

An adult male collected in Southern Utah by Mr. Henshaw of Lieutenant Wheeler’s Expedition differs from all others which we have seen, including a large series from the same locality, in having the abdomen chiefly plumbeous, with a few cloudings of black, in the place of a uniformly black patch. Except in this respect, however, it does not differ at all from other adult male specimens.

HABITS. Gambel’s Partridge was obtained by Dr. Kennerly, near San Elizario, Texas, and on Colorado River, California, by Mr. A. Schott, and also by Dr. Kennerly. It was not observed by Dr. Kennerly until he reached the valley of the Rio Grande, nor did he meet with any farther west, in any part of Mexico, than San Bernardino, in Sonora. Though closely resembling in its habits the Scaly Partridge (Callipepla squamata), and in some instances occupying the same districts, he never found the two species together.

According to Mr. J. H. Clark, this species was not met with east of the Rio Grande, nor farther south than Presidio del Norte. Unlike the squamata, it is very common for this species to sit on the branches of trees and bushes, particularly the male, where the latter is said to utter the most sad and wailing notes. They are so very tame as to come about the Mexican towns, the inhabitants of which, however, never make any effort to capture them. They only inhabit wooded and well-watered regions, and are said to feed indifferently on insects or on berries; in summer they make the patches of Solanum their home, feeding on its quite palatable fruit. When flushed, this Quail always seeks the trees, and hides successfully among the branches.

Dr. Kennerly found this beautiful species in great numbers during the march of his party up the Rio Grande. Large flocks were continually crossing the road before them, or were seen huddled together under a bush. After passing the river he met with them again so abundantly along Partridge Creek as to give rise to the name of that stream. Thence to the Great Colorado he occasionally saw them, but after leaving that river they were not again seen. They are said to become quite tame and half domesticated where they are not molested. When pursued, they can seldom be made to fly, depending more upon their feet as a mode of escape than upon their wings. They run very rapidly, but seldom, if ever, hide, and remain close in the grass or bushes in the manner of the eastern Quail.

From Fort Yuma, on the Colorado River, to Eagle Springs, between El Paso and San Antonio, where he last saw a flock of these birds, Dr. Heermann states he found them more or less abundant whenever the party followed the course of the Gila, or met with water-holes or streams of any kind. Although they frequent the most arid portions of the country, where they find a scanty subsistence of grass-seed, mesquite leaves, and insects, they yet manifest a marked preference for the habitations of man, and were much more numerous in the cultivated fields of Tucson, Mesilla Valley, and El Paso. Towards evening, in the vicinity of the Mexican villages, the loud call-notes of the male birds may be heard, gathering the scattered members of the flocks, previous to issuing from the cover where they have been concealed during the day. Resorting to the trails and the roads in search of subsistence, while thus engaged they utter a low soft note which keeps the flock together. They are not of a wild nature, often permit a near approach, seldom fly unless suddenly flushed, and seem to prefer to escape from danger by retreating to dense thickets. In another report Dr. Heermann mentions finding this species in California on the Mohave desert, at the point where the river empties into a large salt lake forming its terminus. The flock was wild, and could not be approached. Afterwards he observed them on the Big Lagoon of New River. At Fort Yuma they were quite abundant, congregating in large coveys, frequenting the thick underwood in the vicinity of the mesquite-trees. Their stomachs were found to be filled with the seeds of the mesquite, a few grass-seeds, and the berries of a parasitic plant. On being suddenly flushed these birds separate very widely, but immediately upon alighting commence their call-note, resembling the soft chirp of a young chicken, which is kept up for some time. The alarm over, and the flock once more reunited, they relapse into silence, only broken by an occasional cluck of the male bird. Once scattered they cannot be readily started again, as they lie close in their thick, bushy, and impenetrable coverts. Near Fort Yuma the Indians catch them in snares, and bring them in great numbers for sale.