(Lophortyx californicus vallicola)
There are two varieties of the California valley quail. They are
distinguished not so much by the slight difference in color as in the
very marked difference in their habits.
As with the mountain quail the ornithologist has taken the wrong bird
for the type, making the larger race the subspecies. To the species
(=Lophortyx californicus=) inhabiting the foothills of the Coast range
north of the bay of San Francisco and into western Oregon, the
ornithologist has given the English name California partridge. This
species is a lover of damp places and rank growths of underbrush and
ferns. The subspecies (=Lophortyx californicus vallicola=), to which
has been given the name valley partridge, ranges from central Oregon
throughout the great valleys of California, the foothills of the
western slope of the Sierras, both sides of the Coast range south from
San Francisco bay and throughout the peninsula of Lower California.
Like the mountain quail it does not cross the Colorado desert into
Arizona or the mainland of Mexico. Nevertheless it has a wider range
than any other one species of game bird.
Of all the game birds of America the California valley quail is the
most resourceful and characterized by the greatest cunning. Having
hunted these birds for upward of fifty years and practically
throughout their entire range, I freely give them credit for knowing
more tricks and being able to concoct more schemes of deception than
all the rest of the =tetraonidae= combined, and this resourcefulness
has led to most of the false statements regarding their behavior and
gameness. It has been said by writers, who should know better, that a
dog is no use in hunting them because of their disposition to run. Any
bird with more game than a fool-hen will either flush or run where
there is no undercover in which to hide, and the valley quail being so
often found in dry, open places or chaparral devoid of undercover,
will either flush or run until it finds suitable hiding grounds.
But give the valley quail cover in which to hide and it can and will
out-hide any game bird except the Montezuma quail of Mexico. In fact it
is this remarkable faculty of hugging the ground until it is almost
stepped upon that has led, more than anything else, to its false
reputation as a runner. The man who hunts the valley quail without a
dog--and most of its detractors do--can walk through a patch of good
cover with a hundred birds scattered in it for an hour or more and not
get up a half dozen. Unlike the bobwhite or the Montezuma quail of
Mexico, the valley quail bunches in the fall. These bunches will
contain anywhere from two or three broods to two or three hundred
individuals, and sometimes even thousands, and they seem to understand
that the larger the bunch the greater the necessity for avoiding
pursuit. They are fond of the open places and the bare hill-tops and
when driven from these, being a brush bird, they very naturally seek
the brush. If there is no grass or suitable undercover in which to
hide they will continue to work their way through it or double back on
their pursuers until hiding places are found, when they will hug the
ground so closely that even a good dog must pass reasonably near to
them before he will detect their scent. The man who hunts without a
dog generally passes through the cover into which his bevy has
settled, continues his walk for a mile or more, then sits down,
filling the air with a sulphurous streak of strong sounding words as
he curses the game little birds for running, while the resourceful
little fellows, closely hid, laugh over the security a false
reputation has given them.
There has been a great deal written about the ability of quail to
withhold their scent, and many theories have been advanced. That all
game birds do lose their scent temporarily while passing rapidly
through the air I believe to be true, and the valley quail has this
faculty strongly added to its other resources. This too often deceives
the inexperienced man even when hunting with a dog. Where birds have
been flushed into good cover and can not be raised, sit down and take
a smoke, if you like, for twenty minutes or half an hour, then cast in
your dog and you will be rewarded with point after point, where before
your dog failed to detect the slightest scent. After years of
experience with all of the upland birds of the United States and half
of Mexico, I do not hesitate to pronounce the California quail the
chief of them all in gameness, in resourcefulness, and in its general
adaptability to furnish the highest form of upland shooting. But
California quail can not be hunted successfully without a good dog.
The food of the adult California quail, according to an investigation
made by the United States Agricultural Department, through the
examination of the stomachs of 619 birds, taken during every month of
the year, except May, consists of 97 per cent vegetable and 3 per cent
animal matter, the vegetable varying according to the seasons. During
the rainy season, when green vegetation is abundant, grasses and
foliage of various kinds form fully 80 per cent of the entire food,
while in the dry season it forms barely one per cent. In the dry
season weed seeds form as high as 85 per cent of the food; one stomach
examined containing 2144 seeds of various kinds. During the harvesting
season when there is a good deal of grain on the ground, and during
the sowing season, grains form about 6 per cent of the diet. During
the season when wild blackberries, elder and other wild berries are
ripe, these, with a few grapes and a little of some other fruits, form
23 per cent of the food.
During the first week of the life of the young birds, insects of
various kinds make up 75 per cent of their food, but by the time they
are a month old their animal food is no greater than that of the old
birds.
=Color=--Male--Forehead, gray; top and back of head, sooty black,
bordered with white running around from one eye to the other, and this
again has a faint edging of black; throat, black, margined with white;
plume, narrow at the base and wide at the top, consisting of six
black, V-shaped feathers, each folded within the other and curved
forward; back and sides of the neck to the shoulders, deep ashy blue
with the feathers margined with black. Back and wings, bluish brown;
primaries, or longest wing feathers, dark brown; breast, deep ashy
blue, shading into a dirty buff at the lower part of the abdomen;
flanks, dirty brown with white markings.
The northern coast species are darker with more of an olive tinge.
But all the markings are the same.
Female--The female resembles the male in general color, but without
the black head and throat. The plume is dirty brown, about half the
length of the male's and nearly straight.
=Nest and Eggs=--The nest consists of a depression in the ground
carefully hid away in some bunch of grass or brush, and usually
contains from fifteen to twenty very light buff or white eggs, often
faintly speckled.
=Measurements=--Length, eight to nine inches; wing, 4-1/2; tail, 4;
bill, 1/2.
[Illustration: GAMBEL QUAIL OR ARIZONA QUAIL (Lophortyx gambeli)]