corsuch's preliminary oxyemnationsindicate that the food of 
young quail is perhaps 80% animal NAttor. 
 
Water Requirements are being studied intensively. So far Gorsuch has 
found the isquite bean food supply, which is most abundant in the 
cattle manure around tanks and cattle watering places, to be of 
probably geater importance in drawing quail into the locality than 
the water itself. 1tensive winter observations at water holes showed 
that many quail drank water, but that by no means all of them did so. 
A group of over 400 quail was observed to cone in to a water tank one 
orning antd by actual count only 210 drinking   a11 were seen. Some 
of these my have repeated. The quail walk 'UiNhe watering places, as 
a rule, or sometimes fly for short distances, say fifty or a hundred 
feet. 
 
       Gorsuch has plans for water requirement ex;eriaonts with captive 
birds. He expects to get these wider way this winter. 
 
       1uail have been observed nesting three miles (air line) from 
the nearest water. (farther by natural routee). 
 
       A water tank which has just been constructed on the Range 
Reserve offers an opportunity to get a rough measure of the "before
and 
after" quail populations. A plot Of approx"i   oly 160 acres, with
the 
tank in the center, has been laid out and preliminary censuses of the 
quil made. By repeating this procedure it should be possible to 
determine any influx due to water (or to increased food supplies near 
the water)* 
 
St. Gorsuch has found many quail eating salt placed on the range 
for cattle. The significanoe of salt in the diet will be sought by 
experiments with captive birds. 
 
Nestin     dies. Nesting starts about liy 1 and continues at least 
until  pte      1. While nesting no doubt occurs all through this 
period, Gorsuch has noted a tendency toward two nesting seasons, one 
early and one following the suer rains. 
 
       The nests of 20 Gabel .uail and of 5 Scaled Quail wre located 
up to the time I left, with a good possibility of several more nests 
being secured following the s ier rains. Gorsuch heas discovered at 
least half of these nests personally. The others have been obtained 
through the offering of rewards. 
 
       The work so far indicates a nest mortality of at least 60% and 
possibly higher. Nest destruction has been traced to wildcats and 
cotton rats aid loe  certainly to coyotes for dogs?), grey foxes, and 
ravens. Agricultural operations in an irrigated district have proved 
very destructive to nests, resulting in a lose of almost 100%.