1968/01/01 by Allen W. Stokes · 3 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Historical and Linguistic Studies #Reformation and Early Modern Christianity #Biblical Studies and Interpretation
paper · pdf · doi:10.2307/4083626
openalex publication_date 1968/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/19
TxIs paper reports the occurrence, causation, and adaptiveness of antiphonal calling in three species of North American quail (Odontophorinae): The Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), the California Quail (Lophortyx cali-/ornicus), and the Gambel's Quail (L.gambelii).Armstrong (1963: 180) has reviewed antiphonal singing in birds.It can be defined as the alternation of calling between members of a pair or potential mates.Timing is often so accurate that the mutual calling sounds as though it comes from one individual.Antiphonal calling is characteristic of tropical species that live in dense foliage and form an extended pair bond.It is much less common, although widespread, outside of the tropics.It presumably functions to maintain the pair bond and in some species develops through learning.Diamond and Terborgh (1968) discuss several possible functions of duetting in New Guinea birds.Precise duetting or antiphonal calling has been reported from at least two Central American species of Odontophorinae.Griscom (1932: 108), in quoting A. W. Anthony, described perfect duetting between two Dactylortyx thoracicus kept on opposite sides of a house in Quatamala.The natives stated "th'ere would be no song if the two birds could see each other."Skutch (1947: 221) indicated that Odontophorus gujanensis probably duets in a manner similar to that reported by Chapman (1929: 275) for O. marmoratus.Chapman observed two birds standing one to two feet apart and singing a duet in perfect unison.The only other galliform for which antiphonal calling has been reported is Francolinus ahantensis (Holman, 1947: 630.).All these species inhabit dense vegetation that prevents visual contact at a distance.Recently Thorpe (1963), Thorpe and North (1965), and Grimes (1965) have made quantitative studies of the time relationships between the alternate calls of male and female birds.The antiphonal calling we have heard in quail has been entirely from birds confined in pens as large as 20 x 40 feet in which they often went through their complete annual cycle.Details of these arrangements and the vocal repertoires of these species have been presented elsewhere (Ellis and Stokes, 1966; Stokes, 1967; H. W. Williams, "The voice of the California Quail, Lophortyx cali/ornicus with particular reference to ontogeny," Ph.D. dissertation, Utah State University, 1966).These three species of quail spend the winter in coveys of mixed sexes and ages.Cover in quail habitat is often dense.When an individual becomes separated from the group it gives a repeated "separation" call.