Fall Foods of Gambel's Quail (Lophortyx Gambelii) in New Mexico

Abstract

The results of crop analyses of 57 Gambel's quail, collected in the Rio Grande drainage area of New Mexico during October, November, and December are reported. Of a food content totalling 178.9 cc., 91.6% consisted of seeds and fruits (mainly seeds), and 6.5% of greens (mainly alfalfa leaflets). All of the crops contained vegetable material. Animal material, consisting almost entirely of insects (mainly beetles, true bugs, and ants), occurred in 68.4% of the crops, but volumetrically it accounted for only 1.6% of the total food content. Less than 500 individual insects were present, a mere trace compared with the more than 60,000 separate food items identified. This extreme preponderance of vegetable material has been previously reported for other parts of the species' range. Although at least 87 plant species were represented, 22 of these made up 90.4% of the total volume, and 92.8% of the total number of individual items. Plants of the legume, goosefoot, grass, and sunflower families were especially well represented in the diet. Marked use of native legumes such as mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), screwbean (Prosopis pubescens), and peabush (Dalea scoparia) was very noticeable. Equally so was heavy utilization of exotic weeds such as Russian thistle (Salsola kali) and Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense), as well as of exotic crop plants such as sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa). It is suggested that flexibility in feeding habits may help to explain the continued success of Gambel's quail in regions greatly altered by farming and grazing. Gambel's quail (Lophortyx gambelii Gambel) is an important game bird in New Mexico. It is widely distributed over the lower elevations of the southwestern part of the state, and ranges up the Rio Grande Valley and drainage area at least to a point well north of Albuquerque. It also occurs eastward of this drainage in and around the Tularosa Basin. It occurs in the San Juan drainage area of northwestern New Mexico, and there are isolated pockets of apparently permanent introduced range elsewhere in the State. Aside from New Mexico, the various subspecies of L. gambelii occupy a rather large area in the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Utah, as well as the Republic of Mexico. This paper deals with the food habits of Gambel's quail near the eastern periphery of its native range, and is further restricted to the fall season. The conclusions are based on the analysis of 57 crops, distributed as follows: October, 4 crops; November, 38 crops; December, 15 crops. The earliest collection date was October 12 and the latest was December 10. All collections were made during the year 1938-41. Col-