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Quailology

THE PROPAGATION & CARE OF QUAIL
AND PARTRIDGES & By H. W. Kerr.

ak
Qe 2

CALIFORNIA VALLEY PARTRIDGE.
(2a) Photo by Welch

QUAILOLOGY.

The Domestication, Propagation,
Care & Treatment of Wild
Quail in Confinement.

TOGETHER WITH

Natural History Notes, Letters from Breeders
& A Digest of Game Laws.

WRITTEN & COMPILED BY

HARRY WALLAS KERR

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
NATIONAL QUAIL BREEDERS ASSOCIATION.

With Illustrations.

LITTLE SIOUX, IOWA, U. S. A.
PUBLISHED BY THE TAXIDERM COMPANY
1903

Aq.ar54
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1903,
BY HARRY WALLAS KERR,
In the office of the Librarian, at Washington, D.C.

Y WW CONTENTS. W YW

Part I ORNITHOLOGY. Pages 9—26
Part II DOMESTICATION, PROPAGATION, ETc. 27-48
Part III LETTERS & CLIPPINGS. 49—58
Part IV A DIGEST OF GAME Laws. 59—62

QUAIL Toast. Woods & Waters, N.Y.City. 63

WY ILLUSTRATIONS. ¥y

California Valley Partridge. Walter R. Welch. Page 2a.

Texan Bob White. Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. 12a.
Masked Bob White. Dr. Shufeldt from Seaton’s Plates. 14a.
Mountain Partridge. American Ornithology. 16a.
Chestnut-bellied Scaled Partridge. Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. 18a.
Gambel’s Partridge. American Ornithology. 22a,
European Quail. Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. 24a, 58a.
Bob White Male Incubating. Geo. E. Moulthrope. 26a.
Massena Partridge. Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. 32a,
Mountain Partridge. a * Me He 48a,
Pair of Domesticated Bob White. H. A. Boies. 54a.
California Partridge. Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. 62a.

Chestnut-bellied Sealed Partridge. Dr.R.W.Shufeldt 86a. 52a.
California Partridge. ee ES SE ” 42a.

The dew of dawn upon its crest,

It wakes with morning from its rest
Amid the waving, sparkling grass,

That drips with diamonds where I pass;

And with its downy throbbing breast
Upon the gentle breeze caressed,
It fades at distance from my sight,
But lingers yet ita sweet, ‘“BoB WHITE.”

—Basil B. Bassett

W INTRODUCTION. YW

In presenting this, the first edition of ““QUAILOLOGY,”’ I
trust it may meet the long felt want for practical information
regarding the quail family and how they may be taken from a
wild state, domesticated, and successfully reared and cared for,
in confinement.

While I love to see these graceful birds in the full and free
enjoyment of their liberty, I cannot but feel that those who de-
nounce their keeping in confinement, look only at one side of
the question, and take no account of the miseries and struggles
for existence they encounter against winter and rough weather,
the vermin and the shot-gun swine. I, however, would cry out
against those who try to keep them and take no interest or
trouble in making them happy and free from misery. Much
misery is caused every day and many birds are lost from the
lack of ‘‘know how”’ care, and an improper conception of their
natural peculiarities, food and habits. Some who cannot,
would if they ‘‘only knew how,’’ make their birds happy. It
is the purpose of this volume to, as clearly as possible, give the
needful instruction to these and any who may wish to take up
the culture of these game birds from a fanciers’ standpoint.

The culture of the quail is not entirely anew one, but it
has not yet attained that public attention which is bound to a-
rise when it becomes known what a pleasure and profit can be
derived from it under proper management.

The few who are in the business, or culture, as we prefer
to call it, it may suffice to say will not desert it, as it is much
more pleasant and far less disagreeable than other ventures of
a similar nature.

The quail is easily raised, costs very little to feed, is the
healthiest, hardiest, cleanliest, and most prolific bird of the
poultry yard, free from contagious diseases and brings a good
price on any market.

8 QUAILOLOGY — INTRODUCTION.

Once started, the fascination, pleasure and profit in no
way relaxes to induce the abandonment of the culture.

There is much in the future for the culture. Not only in
its advancement, but the improvement of the Bob-White, not
only in markings but in the production of larger and more pro-
lific new species.

That crosses can be made and new varieties produced is yet
amatter of doubt with many. It has not been sufficiently ex-
perimented upon but to receive limited attention in this volume.
Our experience, obtained from rearing these beautiful birds in
the past ten years is related here, as well as notes from various
breeders throughout the United States, to whom we give due
credit. Alsoto the various Ornithological Reports and Works,
on their description, range, nesting and feeding habits and
peculiarities in a wild state, and to Dr. Shufeldt and others for
photographs and drawings of live birds.

It is not to be deemed a foolish fad, but a profitable, pleas-
ant culture, the outcome of a desire to save from extermination
and replace in a domesticated state, and improve, one of the
noblest families of game birds.

QUAILOLOGY.

Part I.
ORNITHOLOGY.

ORDER GALLINAX. GALLINACEOUS BIrRDs.
Granivorous and possessing strong claws for scratching. They include
most of our domestic birds.

SUBORDER PHASIANI. PHEASANTS, GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, ETC.
FAMILY TETRAONIDA. GrousE, PARTRIDGES, ETC.
Game birds; flocks; generally polygamus; feed on insects, seeds, etc; do
little injury; of vast economic importance.
SUBFAMILY PERDICIN A. PartTRIDGES.
GENus COLINUS LEss.

BOB WHITE
Colinus virginianus (LINN. )
Geog, Dist.—Eastern United States; west to Dakota, Kansas, Indian Ter-
ritory and Eastern Texas. North to Southern Maine and Southern Canada,
south to the Atlantic and Gulf States. (*)

Sp. CHAR. ‘‘Forehead, and line through the eye and along the side of the
neck, with chin and throat, white. A band of black across the vertex, and ex-
tending backwards on the sides, within the white. and another from the maxilla
beneath the eye, and crossing on the lower part of the throat; the under parts
are white, tinged with brown anteriorly; each feather with several narrow, ob-
tuse, V-shaped bands of black; the fore part of back, the side of the breast, and
in front just below the black collar, of a dull pinkish red; the sides of body and
wing coverts brownish red; the latter almost uniform, without indication of
mottling; scapulars and upper tertials coarsely blotched with black. and edged
internally with brownish yellow; top of head reddish; the lower part of neck,
except anteriorly, streaked with white and black; primary quills unspotted
brown; tailash. FEMALE: With the white markings of the head replaced by
brownish yellow; the black ones with brownish. YounG: Head ashy, with a
* Goss’ Birds of Kansas.

10 QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY

narrow postocular white stripe, and the crown spotted with black; throat whit-
ish; beneath pale dingy ashy; with whitish shaft streaks, and without black
bars or other markings; above reddish or olivaceous drab, the feathers with
whitish shaft streaks, and a large black spot, mostly on upper web. CHnICK:
Head dingy buff; an auricular dusky elongated spot, and a vertical patch of
chestnut rufous. widening on the occiput.”

Stretch of
Length wing Wing Tail Tarsus Bill
Male...... 10.00 16.00 4.45 2.70 1.25 pT)
Female... 9.50 14.70 4.35 2.65 1.25 00

Iris brown; bill dark brown, usually pale brown at base of under mandible;
legs and feet pale bluish to brownish gray; claws black. (*)

fn this variety albinos are frequently reported; rangeing from a dusky to
almost pure white.

NESTS AND EGGS

The favorite nesting places of this bird are on the ground along
a fence row, at the foot of stumps surrounded by a thick growth
of vegetation, and not infrequently do they select a site in a
bunch of tall grass, or weeds, in the garden, or a cultivated field.
Where there are rail fences the intersecting, invariably grassy
nooks form a favorite nesting site. In the south ‘‘cotton rows.’’
The second setting is often placed at the base, or in the top of a
shock of small grain where their nest is often broken up by
threshing before the setting is hatched. The nest is a very neat
affair and is frequently arched over with grass forming a tunnel
completely hiding it from view. In the meadow lands as well as
grain fields many nests and eggs are annually destroyed during
the haying and harvest season.

Davie, in his Nests and Eggs of North American Birds, says:
“‘Sometimes three broods are reared in a season,’’ this however
we cannot confirm, but invariably two broods are reared. The
first nesting in May and the second the last of July or in August.
An exceedingly late nesting is reported by I. S. Trostler, Omaha,
Nebr., ten fresh eggs being found in Pottawattamie County, Ia.,
on September 12th, 1897. The nest was situated in an old unused
potato field, under a vine grown bush.

The number of eggs in a setting varies from twelve to twenty-
five, and we know of one occasion of thirty-seven being found in
a single nest, which we cannot but say must have been the
complement of two females, while at the same time there was

but one to be seen thereabout. The eggs are pure white, unless
* Goss’ Birds of Kansas.

QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY 11

they have become stained from the grass upon which they are
laid. One end is quite pointed and the other obtusely rounded;
average size 1.20 x .95.

HABITS

This species is familiar to all, being known in the New England,
Middle and Western States as the Quail, and in the Southern
States as the Partridge or Virginia Partridge. It is unquest-
ionably the most prolific of all our game birds. Its present name
“Bob White,’’ its cheerful note call, has at the suggestion of Pro-
fessor Baird, become its present and accepted name.

The birds thrive the best in the presence of man, where, if un-
molested and protected against ‘‘game hogs,’’ they become quite
tame. In the colder sections many perish every winter for want
of food and shelter. Where they are protected and fed they be-
come very tame, and in many instances where they are protected,
feed with the barnyard flock at the doorstep.

Under the care and kind treatment of the true naturalist and
fanciers why should they not become entirely domesticated, when
their friendly relations are openly shown by them when they be-
come so tame as to feed with the barnyard fowls at the doorstep?
The destruction of them from various causes has brought about
the solution of this question.

Cultivated fields afford a safe retreat from their many enemies
and insure a plentiful supply of food. They feed largely upon
weed seeds, cut worms, army worms, twelve spotted cucumber
beetles, chinch bugs, locusts, and many other injurious insects,
and more than doubly repay the farmer for the few grains eaten
before the harvest. The young at first feed exclusively on insect
food and later on small seeds, grainand bugs. Aside from insects
their food consists of buckwheat, wheat, rye, oats, seeds of the
locust, wild peas, tick-tree-foil, sunflower, bitterweed, partridge
berries, wintergreen, nannyberries, wild grapes, etc. In the late
fall they often feed on seeds of skunk-cabbage, acorns and beach-
nuts.

Goss in his Birds of Kansas, says: ‘“‘Although not strictly true
to each other in their marriage relations, are very attentive and
share alike in protecting and rearing the young.”’

During the nesting season the female is seldom seen while the
male, who is very attentive, attracts attention with his loud and
fallacious call, usually uttered from a fence post or lofty position.

QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY 12

Should an accident befall the female, which sometimes unfortun-
ately occurs, the male takes the whole duty of incubation upon
himself. If the nest should be disturbed before the setting is
complete it is usually abandoned, but should incubation have com-
menced they will return and hatch their brood.

The young birds leave the nest as soon as hatched and are often
seen with fragments of the shell still clinging to them, and fol-
low the mother bird. Upon being disturbed the young, at the
warning note from the parent bird, scatter in all directions and
are very hard to be found, owing to their color, so near that of
the ground, dry grass and leaves. As soon as the young birds
are able to fly they are taken in charge by the male and the hen
proceeds to lay a second complement.

They are never to be found in large flocks, each covey gener-
ally keeping to itself and rarely moves far from the place where
it was raised except on account of change of feed in the fall.

The mating season begins in April when the covey, or such as
remain, begin to break up, each pair selecting a suitable nesting
site.

During the past five years thousands of quail have been ship-
ped from Kansas, Nebraska, and other Western States, to New
England, and liberated to replenish the stock of resident birds
which was almost exhausted. They thrive well.

Bob White, male and female. natural size.

TEXAN BOB WHITE = (12a) Photo from life by Dr. Shufeldt.

QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY 13
FLORIDA BOB WHITE

Colinus virginianus floridanus ( COUES. )
Geog. Dist.—Florida.

Sp. CHAR. ‘‘Rather smaller, the male about the size of the female C. vir-
GINIANUS, but bill relatively larger, and jet black; colors darker, all the
black markings heavier, those of the under parts nearly as broad as the
intervening white spaces. (t+)

NESTS AND EGGS

General nesting habits and peculiarities the same as the C.
VIRGINIANUS, eggs slightly smaller. The nesting season com-
mences about a month earlier and the complement is less in num-
ber, averaging 11 to 13.

HABITS

Generally the same as the C. VIRGINIANUS. The mating season
commencing about a month earlier.

Very tame and confiding and when not molested prefer to live
near the habitation of man, probably owing to their greater se-
curity from attacks of beasts and birds of prey.

They prefer an open woods grown up with saw-palmetto, low
bushes, or fields with woods near them and are particularly fond
of slovenly cultivated fields, grown up to bushes and weeds along
the borders.

Their food consists of insects, seeds and cabbage-palm berries.

TBXAN BOB WHITE

Colinus virginianus texanus (LAwR. )
Geog. Dist.—Texas and North-Eastern Mexico, north to Western Kansas.

Sp. Coar, ‘‘General appearance that of C. VIRGINIANUS. Chin, throat,
fore-head and strip over the eye white. Stripe behind the eye, continuous
with a collar across the lower part of the throat, black. Under parts white,
with zigzag transverse bars of black. Above, pale brownish red, strongly
tinged with ash, the feathers all faintly though distinctly mottled with
black; the lower back, scapulars and tertials much blotched with black, the
latter edged on both sides and to some extent transyersely barred with
brownish white. Secondaries with transverse bars of the same on the outer
web. Wing covets coarsely and conspicuously barred with blackish. Lower
part of neck (except before ) streaked with black and white.

“Female with the white of the head changed to brownish yellow; the
black of the head wanting.” ba

* Goss’ Birds of Kansas.
+ Coues Key to North American Birds.

14 QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY

Stretch of
Length wing Wing Tail Tarsus Bill
Male...... 9.25, 14.25 4.25 2.50 1.15 55
Female.... 9.00 14.00 4.20 2.40 1.15 00

Iris brown; bill and claws black; legs and feet olive gray. (*)

NESTS AND BGGS

The nesting habits and peculiarities of this species do not differ
materially from those of the C. VIRGINIANUS. The eggs are
slightly smaller and about the same in numbers.

The favorite nesting site of this species is a bunch of sedge-
grass. J. A. Singley of Giddings, Texas, reports the finding of
five eggs in the nest of a domestic hen not over thirty yards from
afarm house. (a)

Two or three broods are reared in a season, complete settings
being found as early. as May 3rd, to late in September. An un-
usual complement of thirty-three eggs is noted but a reference is
lacking. Eggs measure 1.04 x .98 to 1.20 x .95.

HABITS

This species is somewhat smaller and lighter colored than the
C. VIRGINIANUS. It is a bird of the lowlands and is not found
above two thousand feet altitude.

Its food consists of small berries, acorns, green buds and leaves
of aromatic herbs and small shrubs varied with an occasional
beetle, grasshopper, and ants, especially the winged female of
which they are very fond.

They are very unsuspicious and their low notes uttered while
feeding attracts many enemies, notably: the marsh hawk, fox,
and the large rattlesnake, their worst enemy, so common in Tex-
as. Many young are destroyed yearly by the heavy rains of
June and July, and large numbers perish from cold and protract-
ed wet weather.

During the extreme hot weather of the summer months they
may always be found under the large live oaks of the prairies.

CUBAN BOB WHITE

Colinus virginianus cubanensis ( Gould. )
Geog. Dist.—Cuba and South-Western Florida.
Sp. CHAR.—Slightly smaller and darker colored than the C. v. FLORIDANUS.

(a) Bendire’s Works.
* Goss’ Birds of Kansas.

MASKED BOB WHITE.
(14a) Photo by Dr. Shufeldt from Seaton’s Colored Plates,

QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY 15

NESTS AND EGGS

Quoting Dr. Jaun Viaro, professor of natural history, Universi-
ty of Havana, Cuba: ‘“‘The Cuban Bob White lays from ten to
eighteen eggs; these are usually deposited, between the months
of April and July, in a slight cavity of the ground,. sheltered by
vegetation.’’

HABITS

Specimens intermediate between the Cuban and Florida Bob
White have been taken on the east coast of Florida, near Miami,
Dade County. Locally it is. known as ‘‘Codorniz.’’

It is common in Florida where it is not found at any time in the
heavy forests, but along the outskirts, in the bushes and under-
growth. It feeds on small fruit, seeds and leafy shoots.

The male, according to the late Maj. Bendire, assists in the duty
of incubation.

MASKED BOB WHITE

Colinus ridgwayi ( Brewst. )
Geog. Dist.—Sonora to Southern Arizona.

Sp. CHAR. ‘‘Male, adult. Whole head, neck, and throat black, except
the centre of the crown posteriorly and occipital and nuchal regions, which
are varied with black, white, and cinnamon, the black predominating;
under parts warm brownish cinnamon, immaculate except on the flanks,
where a few of the feathers are spotted marginally with white and dull
black, and on the under tail-coverts. the central feathers of which are broad-
ly tipped with brownish-white and crossed with v-shaped bars of black; in-
ner secondaries, wing-coverts, scapulars, and fore part of back of nearly the
same color as the under parts but paler and pinker, the feathers everywhere
barred and mottled with whitish and dark brown or dull black; upper tail-
coverts, rump, and back posteriorly grayish-drab, obscurely barred and mot-
tled with dark brown and whitish; primaries drab, mottled with whitish
on their outer webs; tail feathers bluish-ash, finely vermiculated with pale
brown and whitish, most strongly on the central pair. Bill black; legs and
feet horn color. Length 9.70; extent, 14.50; wing, 4.45; tail, 2.75; tarsus,
1.20; bill, .30 deep by .34long from nostril. —Type, No.2599, Coll. F.Stephens.

This species seems to most nearly resemble C. CoYOLcos, but
differs in the restriction of the black to the head, neck and throat,
in the absence of white frontal and superciliary stripes, and in
its decidedly larger size. (b)

The type specimen was taken by Mr. Stephens, Aug. 11, about

(by The Auk, Vol. II, No. 2, April, 1885, p. 199,

16 QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY

eighteen miles southwest of Sasabe, Sonora, Mexico, hence very
near the boundray. Mr. Stephen on the same trip saw a precisely
similar bird a few miles north of the line, and within Arizona and
he writes me that he has recently examined two specimens which
were actually taken in Arizona, thus adding the species to our
fauna. (b)
NESTS AND EGGS

Similar to previous variety. The nesting season begins early

in May. Average eleven eggs in a complement.

HABITS

This species does not appear to be a mountain bird, living in
the mesas (table lands) in the valleys and possibly in the foot-
hills. They call ‘‘Bob White’’ and also a second call ‘‘Hoo-we,”’
articulated and as clear cut as the bob white. This second call is
used when the birds are scattered and more especially when sep-
arated near night-fall. They are very plump and over-match the
Arizona Quail in size.

Their food consists of mustard seeds, chaparrel berries, beetles,
grass-hoppers, red ants, green leaves, etc.

MOUNTAIN PARTRIDGE

Oreortyx pictus. ( Dougl. )
Geog. Dist.—Pacific Coast from Santa Barbara north to Washington.

Sp. CHAR. Back, wings and tail olive-brown, the inner secondaries and
tertiaries bordered with whitish or tawny, forming a lengthwise border in
single line when the wings are folded; the primaries and tail-feathers fus—
cous, minutely marbled with the color of the back. Fore-parts, above and
below, slaty-blue (above more or less glossed with the olive shade of the
back, below minutely marbled with black); the throat chestnut, immediate-
ly bordered laterally with black, then framed in a firm white line, broken
through the eye, reappearing around base of under mandible. Extreme
forehzad whitish. The arrow-plumes black. Belly chestnut, the sides band-
ed with broad bars of black and white, or rufous-white; middle of the low-
er belly, tibia, and flanks, whitish or rufous; crissum velvety-black, streak-
ed with chestnut. Bill dusky, paler below; feet brown. Length 11.00-12.00;
extent 16,00-17.00; wing 5.00-5.50; tail 3.00-3.50; tarsus 1.67; middle toe and
claw about the same. (t+)

NESTS AND BGGS
The eggs of this species are placed in a nest of dead leaves, on

+ Coues Key to North American Birds.
(b) The Auk, Vol. II, No. 2, April, 1885, p. 199,

MOUNTAIN PARTRIDGE. (16a) American Ornithology,

QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY 1

the ground beside or under an old log, or on a side hill under a
thick bush or clump of ferns, occasionally along the edge of clear-
ings, grain fields or meadows. The eggs, six: to sixteen in
number, usually ten to fourteen, vary from a pale cream color to
rich creamy buff; unspotted; short ovate in form. Nesting com-
mences in May, and ordinarily but one brood is raised in a season.
The eggs measure 1.86 x 1.02.

HABITS

This species is a larger and more handsome bird than the Bob
White, being the largest of the American Partridges. The
plumes which adorn the head are two in number, arrow-like and
from three to four inches in length. These are noticable in the
chick in the form of tufts of down.

It is found breeding in the higher mountain ranges, not below
4000 feet, and is a constant resident wherever found. It is found
very abundant in Oregon.

Prof. O. B. Johnson of the University of Washington (Seattle)
reports a covey wintering in a barn lot with the domestic poultry
at the outskirts of Seattle. (a)

Their food consists of insects and various kinds of seeds, and
grain is never refused where it.can be obtained.

PLUMED PARTRIDGE

Oreortyx pictus plumiferus. ( Gould. )

Geog. Dist.—Sierra Nevada ranges from Oregon southward; coast ranges
of California to Cape St. Lucas. South of latitude 34 deg. in California only.

Sp. CHAR. Above grayish olive, the hind-neck usually partly or wholly
plumbeous, like the breast; inner edges of tertials light buff or buffy white;
forehead distinctly paler ( often whitish ) anteriorly. ({)

NESTS AND EGGS

The nest is but a slight depression in the ground, scratched
out, and lined with dry leaves, pine needles and such feathers as
are lost by the hen during incubation. It is situated along or
under an old log,’ under low bushes, tufts of weeds or ferns. The
favorite nesting site is in the vicinity of logging camps, under
the fallen tops of pine trees that are left by the choppers, which
offer an excellent cover for their nests. The mating season com-

(a) Bendire’s Works.
+ Ridgways Nomiculture

18 QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY

mences the latter part of March or early in Arpil. Complete
complements are reported as early as April 7th and as late as
August 15th, according to the latitude and altitude. Eggs ten to
nineteen in number.

In the higher mountains but a single brood is raised in a season
while in the lower foot-hills two broods are raised, the male care-
ing for the first brood while the female is hatching the second.

HABITS

Similar to the Mountain Partridge, in fact it is often known by
that name and is more deserving of the title than the previous
species.

Its food consists of insects, buds and tender tops of leguminous
plants, small seeds and berries of various kinds.

SAN PEDRO PARTRIDGE

Oreortyx pictus cofinis.
Geog. Dist.—San Pedro Mountains, Lower California and southward.

Sp. CHAR. Upper parts grayer; bill thicker than O. PICTUS.
NESTS AND EGGS

Nesting habits the same as the preceding species, eggs re-
semble in shape, color and number.

HABITS

Same as preceding species.
Breeding range from foot-hills to tops of the highest peaks
(up to about 12,500 feet), not common below 2,500 feet altitude.

SCALED PARTRIDGE
Callipepla squamata. ( Vig. )

Geog. Dist.—Northern Mexico and border of the United States, from
Western Texas to New Mexico and Southern Arizona.

Sp. Cuar. General color bluish-plumbeous, shading into olive-brown on
the back and wings and to rufous on the under parts behind the wings,
with a large abdominal area of orange-brown; the feathers of the neck all
around and most of those of the under parts, sharply edged with black,
producing a peculiar shell like appearance; on the breast the feathers also
concealed reddish shaft-lines. Long feathers of the sides like the back in
color, with white brown-edged stripes or long-oval spots. On the flank and
crissum the feathers lose the scaly appearance, becoming blended rusty-brown,
with linear, sagittate, or cordate dark spots. Inner secondaries edged with
buff or whitish, affording to the folded wing the lengthwise stripe so char-

“WPIMYS “Aq Aq oF] Wowy OpoHY (kt) MHACIULUVd AHIVOS AAITIHA-LANLSAHO

QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY 19

acteristic of N. A. partridges. Quills plain fuscous; tailfeathers plumbeous.
No definite stripes about the head; crest dark brown ending in pure white.
Length 10.00-11.00; extent 14.50-15.50; wing 4.50; tail 3.50; tarsus 1.25; mid-
dle toe and claw 1.04.

FEMALE; little different; head markings the same; the orange-brown of the
belly reduced or wanting; size rather less. (+)
NESTS AND EGGS

The mating season begins as early as March; nesting commenc-
ing early in April and until late in September. The nest is plac-
ed upon the ground under the shelter of a yucca or a small bush,
and is a slight depression in the ground, scratched out and but
scantly lined with coarse grasses. Occasionally a wheat or grain
field, alfalfa meadow or potato patch is selected as a nesting site.

Two and even three broods are raised in a season, numbering
from nine to sixteen each. The eggs are white or creamy white
irregularly dotted with specks of various shades, buff, vandyke
brown and lilac; size, 1.24 x .94.

HABITS

This handsome bird is usually known as the Blue Quail, also
“White Top-knot Quail.’’ It is a constant resident of Southwest-
ern Texas along the valley of the Rio Grande. Very common in
some portions of Southern Arizona in the open valleys, plains and
along the foot-hills, shunning the timbered country. Is very shy
and wary, difficult to approach; prefering to trust to its legs
almost entirely asa means of escape, being an expert and swift
runner, dodging in and out among the bushes with great ease and
dexterity. The covey generally follow a leader in indian-file
fashion, ranging from twenty-five to sixty or eighty in a covey.

Its habits seem to differ in different localities. In some regions
they are found only near water, while in others they are not
found near water, but always from two to five miles away from
water, in which instance they have been observed to make reg-
ular visits to the watering places late in the afternoon- Good
clear water is a necessity to them.

“The latter part of summer and early fall,’’ says E. W. Nelson,
“they gather into coveys, often containing several broods, as I
observed in 1882 in the valley of the Gila river near Clifton, Ariz..
At this season they frequent the barren hillsides or the now dry
water courses and fields adjoining, associating with the Gambels

+ Coues Key to North American Birds.

20 QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY

Partridge. They are easily trapped in the fall and winter and
many are caught by the natives and taken to the markets of the
larger towns of New Mexico and Arizona.’’ (a)

Their food consists of small seeds, grain, berries of various
kinds, tender tops of plants, small beetles, ants and grasshoppers.

CHESTNUT-BELLIED SCALED PARTRIDGE

Callipepla squamata eastanogastris. ( Brewst. )
Geog. Dist.—Eastern Mexico and Lower Kio Grande of Texas.

Sp. CHAR, Easily distinguished from the C. SQUAMATA, being a much
richer and darker colored bird; a sub-species.

NESTS AND BGGS

Mating and nesting season somewhat earlier than the preced-
ing species. Complete complements of eggs are reported from
March 11th to July 10th. Two broods are unquestionably raised
in a season, ranging from ten to twenty-three each, average
fifteen. The eggs resemble those of the Scaled Partridge, but
are lighter in color and more thinly marked.

HABITS

General habits and food similar to that of the preceding species.
It appears to inhabit the low lands along the valley of the Rio
Grande while the Scaled Partridge is confined to the table lands.

CALIFORNIA PARTRIDGE

Callipepla californica (Shaw. )

Geog. Dist.—Coast region of California south to Monterey. Introduced in
Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver Island, B. GC.

Sp. CHAR. Male. With a small white line from bill to eye; forehead
whitish with black lines; occiput smoky-brown; nuchal and cervical feathers
with very dark edging and shaft-lines, and fine whitish speckling. General
color of upper parts ashy, with strong olive-brown gloss, the edging of the
inner quills brownish-orange. Fore breast slaty-blue; other under parts
tawny, deepening centrally into rich golden-brown or orange-chestnut, all
the feathers sharply edged with jet-black; sides Olive-ashy like the back
with sharp white stripes; vent, flanks, and crissum tawny, with dark stripes:
Length 10.00-11.00; wing 4.25; tail 3.75; tarsus 1.25; middle toe and claw
rather more. Besides lacking the definite head-markings, the FEMALE wants
the rich sienna color of the under parts, which are whitish or tawny with
black semicircles as in the male, the breast is olive-gray. (+)

(a) Bendire’s Works.
+ Coues Key to North American Birds.

QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY 21

XN

Lv ‘

ASN.

a ae
CALIFORNIA PARTRIDGE.

NESTS AND BGGS

The nests of this species are slimsy affairs, placed along side of
a rock, log or old stump, under a pile of brush or in a bunch of
grass or weeds. Occasionally it is placed in a perfectly open
situation without any concealment. Now and then a hens nest
in a chicken house is used, and unusual sites are often reported,
but rarely in trees. Incubation twenty-one days. Occasionally
two broods are reared in a season. The eggs, twelve to sixteen
in number (as many as twenty-one have been recorded), are
beautifully marked. The ground color is creamy-white, occasion-
ally a decidedly buff set is found, marked with spots and blotches
of dark chestnut-brown, olivacous drab and golden russett, gen-
erally evenly scattered; shape resembling the Bob White.

HABITS
This handsome bird, commonly called’ the Valley or Top-knot

22 QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY

Quail, has also been introduced at Grand Junction, Colorado, and
is becoming quite numerous. It is abundant in Oregon, but be-
coming scarcer in California where fifteen years ago it was very
common, this due to the excessive pursuit by gunners. A cons-
tant resident and breeds wherever it is found.

In localities where it is not constantly harrassed and hunted
the California Partridge becomes surprisingly tame and confiding,
becoming almost domesticated, and under such circumstances
many nest close to houses, outbuildings, and in the shrubbery of
the gardens adjacent to human habitations. It is much shyer
and difficult to approach in the fall and winter.

Its favorite haunts are the underbrush and thickets along the
water courses, brush covered hill sides and canyons, frequenting
the roads, cultivated fields, vineyards and edges of clearings to
feed.

The mating season commences early in March. Then the large
pack, to which this species gather in the fall of the year, break
up gradually, each pair selecting a suitable nesting site.

The food of the young consists of insects, small seeds and
chickweed.

VALLBY PARTRIDGE

Callipepla californica vallicola (Ridgw. )

Geog. Dist.—Interior Regions of California and Oregon, south to Cape St.
Lucas. Western Nevada.

Sp. CHAR. A paler and grayer colored bird than the C. CALIFORNICA; a
sub-species.

NESTS AND EGGS

The mating season varies greatly, according to the occurence
of early rains. When rain is plentiful the coveys break up in
March.

Nests and eggs similar to the preceding species in every re-
spect. One brood, and not uncommonly two, are raised in a
season numbering from twelve to twenty-four each.

HABITS

This sub-species inhabits the dryer interior valleys and foot hills
throughout its range. In the Coso Mountains and on the west
slope of Walkers Pass in the Sierra Nevada range in California it
is found to range from the lowest part of the valley up through

GAMBEL’S PARTRIDGE. (22a) American Ornithology,

QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY 23

the canyons to the tops of the highest peaks, where it quite close-
ly associates with the Mountain Quail during the breeding season.

Introduced at Ogden, Utah where it is now found. Resident
and breeds throughout its range. Becoming scarcer in California.

A. C. Lowell, in Bendire’s Life History of North American
Birds, states that these birds are unable to stand the severe cold,
especially when accompanied by a heavy fall of snow.

It is never found in cultivated fields but remains on the brush
covered hill sides. Roosts in the thick brush, but on the ground
when brush is at hand.

GAMBBL’S PARTRIDGE
Callipepla gambelii. ( Nutt. )

Geog. Dist.—Northern Mexico, Arizona, New Merico, Southern Utah,
Western Texas and Southern Nevada.

Sp. CHar. Male. Without white loral line; forehead black with whitish,
lines; occiput chestnut; nuchal and cervical feathers with dark shaft lines,
bunt few dark edgings or none, and no white speckling. General color of
upper parts clear ashy, the edging of the inner quills white. Fore-breast
like the back; other under parts whitish, the middle of the belly with a
large jet-black patch; sides rich purplish-chestnut, with sharp white stripes;
vent, flanks and crissum white with dusky streaks, Bill black; iris brown.

Besides lacking the definite head markings the FEMALE wants the black
abdominal area, where the feathers are whitish with dark lengthwise
touches; crest dark brown, not recurved, and fewer-feathered than that of
the cock. Top of head grayish-brown, nearly uniform from bill to nape;
throat grayish-white with slight dark pencilling. Cwicks, in the down;
Bill above reddish, nearly white below; feet dull flesh-color. Head dingy
yellowish, with a large brown spot on the occiput, a few black, white-
streaked feathers on crown, and the crest sprouting in a week or two. Up-
per parts grayish-brown mottled with black spots, and conspicuously striped
with white lines. Onter webs of the sprouting quills marked with blackish
and whitish. Throat white; other under parts narrowly barred with black
and tawny-white, striped lengthwise with pure white. Sprouting tail-feath-
ers like the primaries. PULLETS, quarter-grown, 6-7 inches long; Leaden-
gray, becoming tawny on the wings, which are still a little mottled as
above described; below, light gray, nearly white on throat and belly.
Breast waved with light and dark gray, with traces of the white stripes.
Sides under the wings slightly fulvous or rufescent, but without definite
stripes. Quills plain dusky; tail-feathers more plumbeous, marked with
blackish and whitish, A broad white superciliary line. With the progress
of: the fall moult this dress changes for one like that of the adults, and
the sexes are soon distinguishable. (t)

a TE . .
+ Coues Key to North American Birds.

24 QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY

NESTS AND EGGS

The mating season commences the latter part of February,
nesting the first week in April. The nest is usually slightly
lined with bits of dry grass and leaves, often no lining whatever,
but mere hollows in the dry sandy soil, usually under a pile of
brush or in a clump of grass. Incubation twenty-one days.

Eggs ten to twenty-four in number, short ovate in form,
resembling the C. CALIFORNICA in color and markings.

HABITS

This is the characteristic game bird of Arizona, it in also known
as the Arizona Quail. It is essentially a desert bird. Replaced
in Texas by the Massena Partridge. W. E. D. Scott found it
distributed throughout the entire Catalina region of Arizona
below an altitude of 5,000 feet. (4)

During the hot weather it prefers to remain in the cool spots
of the creek bottoms, frequently perching in the trees and read-
ily taking to trees at all times.

MASSBNA PARTRIDGE

Cyrtonyx montezumae (Vig. )

Geog. Dist.—Tablelands of Mexico from the City of Mexico north to
Western Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

Sp. CHAR. Male: Upper parts intimately waved with black and reddish-
brown and tawny-brown, and marked with sharp buff or whitish shaft-lines;
on the wings the irregular black variegation changing to black bars and
round spots, in regular paired series on each feather. Outer quills fuscous,
their outer webs spotted with white or buff. Under parts crowded with
innumerable round white spots on a dark ground, several pairs on each
feather; the middle line of the breast and belly mahogany-colored, the flanks,
vent and crissum velvety-black. Top of head black in front, with slight
white touches, changing on the crest to brown. Sides of head and throat
fantastically striped with black and white; a broad black throat-patch;
another on the cheeks; across lores and alongside of crown; a third on the
ear-coverts; a fourth bordering the white all around behind. Length about
9.00; extent 17.00; wing 4.75; tail 2.00; tarsus 1.20; middle toe and claw
1.60; its claw alone 0.50. FEMALE: Upper parts as in the male, but the
markings of the wings less regular, more assimilated with the general
variegation, and the tone more fulvous. No peculiar marks on head, throat
whitish or buff; general tone of the under parts pale purplish-cinnamon,
with fine mottling of black and white on each feather. YOUNG MALE: Re
sembling the hen, but the under parts ochrey or whitish with black variegation.

4 Davies’ Nests & Eggs af North American Birds.

“PPAINYS “A-T &q OFT Woy Coy (Ez)

COW) “TIVGS NvEee™ lg
,

QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY 25

CHICKS: scarcely fledged, 3-4 inches long. Bill reddish above; whitish
below; feet dull brownish. Above, light warm brown, varied with black,
boldly striped with white—each feather having a hammer-headed white
shaft-line. Some inner wing-quills like the back; others dusky with whitish
shafts, broken-barred with buff, chiefly on outer webs. Below, buffy-white,
with numberlsss spots of blackish paired on each feather, sharp and circu-
lar on breast, further back widening to bars. (+)

NESTS AND BGGS
Nesting habits similar to preceding species. Eggs, eight to
fifteen in number; white, smooth grain, ovate in form, otherwise
resembling the Bob White.
HABITS

This is one of the least known game birds of the United States.
Very showy in full plumage. Better known in Western Texas
as the Black or Black-bellied Quail, also as the Fool Quail.

They are known to readily adapt themselves to changed condi-
tions of life and are frequently confined in cages after having
been caught from a wild state.

Rarely seen in large numbers, usually six to ten in a covey.
Migratory, going southward in the fall. Very fond of dusting
themselves in the road. Of a very confiding disposition which
has given it the name of Fool Quail. The pole-cat is their
principle enemy.

Their food consists of bulberous roots, seeds of lagumanous
plants, grain, and grass roots. They are very fond of cactus
seeds and insects, and seem to be very partial to coarse sand.

BUROPEAN QUAIL

Coturnix coturnix ( Linn, )
Geog. Dist.—Europe, Asia, etc. Introduced into the United States.

Sp. CHAR. Upper parts variegated with buff or whitish and black upon
a mixed reddish-brown and gray ground, the most conspicuous markings
being sharp lance-linear lengthwise stripes of buff or whitish over most of
the upper parts, these dashes mostly edged with black; other less prominent
puff or whitish cross-bars, several to a feather, likewise framed in black.
Crown mixed brown and black, with sharp median and lateral buff stripes.
Throat white, bounded before by a dark bar curving down behind the
auriculars; behind, by a necklace of ruddy-brown, blackish, of whitish
spots; chin varied with dark marks in advance of the auricular bar. Under
parts fading to whitish from the bhff or pale yellowish-brown breast, with-

+ Coues Key to North American Birds.

26 QUAILOLOGY — ORNITHOLOGY

out any dark crossbars, but the long feathers of the sides and flanks with
large and conspicuous white shaft-stripes and otherwise variegated with
black, brown, and buff. Primaries fuscous, spotted with light brown on
outer webs; secondaries similar, but the markings becoming bars on both
webs. Tail-feathers brownish-black, much varied with shaft-lines, cross-bars,
and edgings of buff; crissum immaculate, like the abdomen. Bill dark;
feet pale; iris dark brown. Length about 7.00; wing 3.75; tail 1.75; tassus
1.00; middle toe and claw rather more. (t+)

In taking up this foreign species we rely greatly on a foreign
author for data relative to its nesting, eggs and habits. Our
text is drawn from his work and to him all credit is due, namely,
J. M. Bechstein, M. D., in his ‘‘Cage and Chamber Birds,’’ | re-
vised by H. G. Adams.

The noting of the European Quail in this volume is made
necessary by the importation of large numbers of these birds
into the Eastern States, north to New Brunswick. The perma-
nent naturalization of it is still questionable, either climatic
conditions or food are unsuited to them.

NESTS AND EGGS

The only nest formed by this Quail, is a hole scratched in the
ground, and lined with a few straws or grass stalks. The female
does not lay her eggs, which are ten to fourteen in number, and
bluish white with large brown spots, till late in the year, often
not till July. Incubation twenty-one days.

HABITS

This Quail is a bird of passage, arriving in Germany in May
and departing about the end of September. It frequents the
fields of grain and especially those of autumn-sown wheat.

Their food consists of all kinds of seeds and grain, for example,
wheat, millet, rape, hemp and poppy seeds. It also feeds up-
on green plants and insects; and is very fond of ants’ eggs.

It moults twice a year, namely in the spring and autumn.
The females hatch their eggs and rear the young birds, which
run about with their mother before they are fledged; though this
takes place before the autumn migration. One brood is raised
in a season.

+ Coues Key to North American Birds.

HUNGARIAN PARTRIDGES QUAILOLOGY X-I

The constantly growing popularity of the Hungarian Partridges
for propagation purposes has induced us to embody in QUAILOL-
OGY a brief description.

The depletion of game in all civilized countries caused a search for
a game bird which would thrive even under adverse physical and
climatic conditions; offer sport for the gunners and a choice bird to
bag for the table. All these qualities were found in the Hungarian
Partridge which soon resulted in a demand for these birds in large
quantities.

In order to meet the heavy demand Julius Mohr, Jr. of Ulm, Ger
many purchased from several Manorial Estates in Hungary the sole

right of capturing partridges. In 1906 some 30,000 pairs were ex-
ported, several thousand pair coming to America through Wenz &

Mackensen of Yardley, Penn; 1060 of these were purchased by the
State of Illinois. 200 by the State of Kansas and the remainder by
clubs and private parties.

The Hungarian Partridge belongs to the species Perdix Cinerea
which ranges over Europe, Western and Central Asia and is found
in Sunny Italy as well as in cold Scandinavia, plainly showing its
adaptability to all climates. It isa- -
bout the size of our Bob White and
resembles it in general coloring very
much. The sides of the head and
throat are of a light reddish brown
while the top of the head is brown
with yellow stripes. Across the
gray back there are a number of
rust brown stripes extending to the
lower part of the body The breast
is adorned by a brown shield more
or less distinctive and is the shape of a horse shoe. Until recently
the chestnut horse shoe mark on the breast was considered as dis-
tinetive of a male, the female having this reduced to a few chestnut
spots, or absent. It is true, indeed, that in old birds the diffierence
in this patch is generally characteristic of the male and female,
but in the majority of immature females the horse shoe is well de-
veloped and nearly or quite as large as inthe adult male.

Owing to the most favorable territorial, climatic and agricultural

conditions in Hungary the partridges have become numerous, larger
and more vigerous in that country than anywhere else.

Well watered woodland tracts in the vicinity of arable lands are

HUNGARIAN PARTRIDGES QUAILOLOGY X-II

the best suited, but the partridge is easily pleased and can practic:
ally make its living anywhere. There are few birds which so strict-
ly adhere to their once selected abode as do the Hungarian Part-
ridge. Even their offspring do not wander away. This virtue es-
pecially, together with the extreme hardiness, high prolificacy and
other fine qualities make this bird the most ideal game bird known
for stocking game parks and preserves
The Hungarian Partridge is very sociable, peaceful, affectionate
and faithful to its mate and offspring, and even gladly adopts des
titute young ones of its kind. The amity of the partridge is nicely
illustrated by the following observation where a partridge hen and
a pheasant hen were found setting side by side on anest containing
9 pheasant eggs and 18 partridge eggs. The eggs were left for the
partridge hen to hatch She good-naturedly took uron herself
the task and afterwards faithfully reared the pheasants with her
own flock. The partridges mate in pairs only and it is claimed
that the mates remain always true to each other.
Toward the end of April or beginning of May the hen commences
to lay. Her nest is usually a shallow hollow on the level ground.
a She lays from 9 to 17 eggs, which hatch
in 26 days. The chicks are most charm-.
ing little creatures, very pretty in color
and shading. They commence running
oa about as soon as they leave the egg. Both
wet, eae parents take eqaul part in the care and

training of the young. The cock guards. warns and defends, while
the hen leads. feeds and shelters them. If either one of the parents
are killed the other will take care of the brood, the male even tak-
ing the place of the mother. It is due to this untiring care by the
parent birds that nearly all of their young are reared and it does
not take long to populate a whole district.

During their earliest age the partridges feed almost exclusively
on insects and worms, to which they later add vegetable matter.
Snow and cold weather do not deprive them of food. If hard frozen
snow covers the ground they seek berries or buds of trees & bushes.

While it is a known fact that bob-whites will succumb ina heavy
snowfall lacking sufficient size and strength to come to the surface
the Hungarian Partridge can easily work itself through from 2 to 3
feet of snow. This most important feature cannot be sufficiently
emphasized in recommending these birds to sections of the country
where severe winters are experienced.

The Hungarian Partridge can also be bred in captivity by practi-
cally the same methods employed for the successful rearing of quails

‘adoayy Mop Lq eFty Mor OFOILA (BZ) ‘ONILVZOONI DIVA ALIHM FOF

QUAILOLOGY.

Part II.

DOMESTICATION, PROPAGATION,
CARE & TREATMENT OF WILD
QUAIL IN CONFINGMENT.

[ W Introductory W ]

While it is a little departure from the established custom to
make introductory remarks at this time, we never-the-less wish
here to sound a warning note to those few who are ever ready to
“take-up and jump-into’’ a new hobby, culture, fancy or venture.

The taming of and careing for the Quail is by no means a
trivial affair, and to those who think it such we want to say,
study the following pages carefully, and weigh in your own mind
fairly and squarely, without imagination, what there is for you
to do in the culture of the Quail.

We do not say that anyone can raise Quail, because they can-
not, unless they care for them properly. True, there is no great
amount of labor and attention required, but that little must be done.

The Quail, while it is one of our game birds, is also one of the
innocent creatures of God’s creation that bids our esteem in its
native haunts and our careful attention and kind treatment in
confinement. The successful one in the culture is he or she that
loves it, takes naturally to it, sees in it the beautiful lines of
nature’s handiwork and cultivates them. The mere‘‘water, feed
and sell’? man may succeed fairly well, but much more the one
who studies carefully the peculiarities, habits, food and conditions
that Mother Nature produces in her world-wide aviary, and

28 QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC.

applies them to the comfort of his caged birds. Therefore it is
essential that we know these, and from the preceding pages de-
voted to Ornithology, some good points may be learned. Review
them well and then let us procede.

[ ¥ Y History Ww Ww |

We have often heard the remark made, ‘‘Oh you can’t tame a
Quail,’ ‘“You never can tame them,”’ etc, but we have tamed
them, gained their confidence, and so long as we keep it we shall
continue to bring them nearer to complete domestication in the
full meaning of the word.

A work issued several years ago, and from which a number of
reprints have been made and widely distributed, claims the
culture of the quail to be of recent years and in a little story
gives the process, in several sections, of raising quail for profit
and pleasure. However, the culture dates prior to eighteen
hundred and ninty in America, while in Europe a work bearing
the date of October 20, 1794 tells of the choice European Quail,
so valued as a pet and singer. They were trained to sing, and a
bird uttering their peculiar note ‘‘Pickvervik!’’ ten times in
succession was highly prized while a very valuable bird is record-
ed as uttering it thirty times. The work also treats on the
methods of taking, careing and feeding.

In this country numbers of naturalists and lovers of nature
have, in years past, tamed the quail, but is true that the ad-
vancement of the culture has gained ground in the last five
years. This due to the fact that these game birds are becoming
scarcer and their preservation is of importance and it lays with the
true fancier to save them from extermination, by domestication.

The author has bred quails from a fanciers standpoint for a
number of years, and has received hundreds of inquiries for in-
formation such as we shall endevor to impart here. Many others
have been breeding and experimenting with quail and we have
given space to their views on this subject in another part of this
work.

In 1899, an association was formed, styled The National Quail

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC 29

Breeders Association, of which the writer was and is Correspond-
ing Secretary, having as its object the general advancement of
the culture and the dissemination of a more thorough knowledge
of these game birds together with the pleasure and profit to be
derived from the intelligent care and breeding of the several
varieties. Up to the present time very little has been done but

it is to be hoped that some progress will be made during the
coming season.

a

[ W Procuring Stock ¥y ]

The procuring of stock will first receive our attention, while it
might possibly have been better for us to have considered a
home for the birds, before procuring them. Never-the-less we
infer the amateur will study this work thoroughly, before ven-
turing into the culture, and have an aviary all ready for the
reception of his stock.

There are several ways of procuring a start; procure eggs and
hatch out the chicks; trap the wild birds; or purchase domesti-
cated stock from some reliable fancier, we wont say dealer, as we
trust there are none who come under that term as we define it,
‘“‘water, feed and sell’’ regardless of merit.

Eggs may be secured from the nests of the wild birds. The
reader will find the Ornithological portion of this work valuable
in determining when and where to search for the nests and eggs
of the various species. When found, if the nest does not contain
a full setting do not disturb it, as you are liable to cause the female
to abandon it. Watch it as closely as possible and when the
female stops laying remove the eggs and pack them carefully in
in saw-dust or cotton, and as soon as possible transfer them to
the incubator or place them under a hen. The hatching out will
receive our attention later on.

Wild birds may often be obtained from commission merchants
in the larger cities, as they often receive crates of live birds for
the markets. In purchasing these, however, one runs consider-
able risk of losing his stock, owing to the fact that many are
injured in transit or injure themselves while confined in the

30 QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC.

erates. The long journey and improper food also has a disas-
trous effect on them. However some choice birds can be se-
cured as well as those of various species. Ihave seen the com-
monly called Mexican Blue Quail in Chicago markets, and fre-
quently, I am told, other varieties are received.

Where game laws do not conflict, or upon yourown premises,
a good plan is to trap the old birds. This should be done in the
fall or early winter and the birds placed in their permanent
quarters as soon as possible so that they may become accustom-
ed to their surroundings and begin to breed the following
spring. The use of the regular Partridge or Quail Nets is a
good method, or box traps. Where it possible to secure a male
or female to use as a decoy, the operation of trapping is easily
facilitated, but where none can be had, the beginner must
wait until the ground is covered with snow and feed is scarce,
to make any progress in trapping. We will not go into the
question of traps and nets as we presume there are but few
who do not know how to make box traps or set a net, and where
the quail are most likely to be found in his neighborhood.

( W TheAviary ¥ )

This is a question upon which only suggestions and general
remarks can be made and the essential points brought out. We
assume that our ideas vary and that your circumstances and
conditions may not permit of your following a fixed plan.

In constructing an aviary we must remember that the quails
need plenty of fresh air and sunlight, also a certain amount of
shelter. Many birds perish every winter, in their native
haunts, from cold and exposure, so we must have a certain
amount of shelter for them. Again some varieties require more
shelter than others owing to the variation from the climatic
conditions of their native ranges.

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC. 31

With the exception of one or two varieties, the quail family
all roost on the ground and seldom take to the trees so that it
is not necessary that we should build the aviary or shelter
house high. It should be kept clean and well painted through-
out every season with carbolineum, or whitewashed. With
the the exception of the house it should not be floored as the
birds delight to scratch and dust themselves.

When possible the aviary should be placed on a grassy plot
and where there are such, over an ant-hill, as the birds are very
fond of ants and ants’ eggs.

Our breeding pens are 12 x Sand 3 1-2 feet high. One end
and the top are boarded up, anda trap door placed in the top
to admit of access in cleaning and feeding. A twelve inch
board is placed on the bottom of either side and the remainder
of the sides covered with inch mesh woven wire. During the
breeding season a foot wire screen is placed above the foot
boards, the entire length, to keep the little chicks from escap-
ing. The remaining end is closed by one side of the nesting
and shelter house, it a trifle higher and sloping to two and a
half feet behind, and three feetin width. In this are placed
a row of nesting boxes, shelves for the birds to roost on if they
choose to in bad weather, dusting and grit boxes. A window,
which may be darkened during the nesting season, is placed
in one end for light, and a door to admit of cleaning, ete, at
the other end. This is so constructed as to be warm during
the winter and well ventilated during the summer, and forms
a quiet retreat for the birds at all times. Openings, which may
pe closed when desired, are cut to admit of passage to and from
the house to the run. The house is well floored and during the
winter the floor is covered, to a depth of two or three inches,
with nice clean straw, and our birds never suffer from the cold.
In the run we place a dusting box, which is kept filled with
yoad dust, a grit box and a very shallow water dish, this should
not contain more than a half inch of water as we once had the

32 QUAILOLOGY ~ DOMESTICATION, ETC.

misfortune to lose a brood of young chicks by their getting
drowned in a deep water dish. A few perches in the run, and
a pile of brush with a little straw thrown over it to serve as a
run retreat, and we have an aviary that is large enough for a
dozen to eighteen birds and their chicks, an aviary that is not
so cumbersome but what it can be moved from one spot to
another. We will add, however, that it is advisable to sink an
inch mesh woven wire, to the depth of eighteen inches, all
around the aviary, and attached to it, to prevent their greatest
enemy, rats, from gaining access to the birds.

( Taming The Wild Quail ¥)

Having our aviary in readiness for the wild birds we have
trapped or netted, we will, before placing them in their perma-
nent quarters, proceed to overcome their wild nature and gain
at least a portion of their confidence, and accustom them to our
attention and approach. First we will place them in a taming
box especially designed for that purpose, a small box only
large enough to admit of their turning around and stretching
their legs. The front may be covered with common wire
screen and the top MUST be made of cloth, for the reason that
the quail, when startled, are addicted to springing up, and they
go with considerable force. If the top be made of wood they
are very apt to injure themselves and die from the effects. A
door is made in one end to admit of feed and water and we are
ready for the birds. Gently stroking them, we place them one
by one into the box, and without disturbing them or allowing
them to be disturbed, we leave them to themselves until feed-
ing time. We feed them twice a day at regular hours, and as
often as opportunity permits or our time allows, we open the
little door and caress the birds, stroking them gently and. call-
ing them by name or softly imitating their note call, take one

“4ppynyg “ag Aq (ege) GOCIULUVd VNGESSVW

— ADGTOTIWAD

2

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC. 33

out and caress it gently fora few minutes and then place it
back and take up another. Their box is small and they have
not the opportunity to flutter and fly around and become wild-
er. They soon learn that they are not to be harmed and sub-
mit to caressing, where if the box was larger we would scare
the life out of them in trying to place our hands on them, this
is one object of the smallness of the box. Another is, that
taken from their world-wide aviary and placed in a cage of
any size they would feel the sense of confinement, and being
subjected to close confinement at first, they more fully appre-
ciate the liberties of a larger aviary when placed in their per-
manent quarters. As they grow tamer we increase the range
of their liberties and place them in a larger box, and finally
place them in their permanent quarters, where they soon begin
to feel at home and are not disturbed at our approach.

A greater number of birds may be handled successfully by
the use of two boxes, barely large enough to hold them, and
transferring the birds from one to the other several times a
day, carefully caressing each one and imitating its note-call
as it is transferred.

It is a certain fact that there is a difference in people, and
that some have a more convincing way that appeals to wild
nature, than others, but if care and kind treatment are used
most anyone can overcome the wildest of nature in the quail.

A certain breeder offersthe following method by which the
quail may be tamed and brought under complete control in the
space of a few hours.—‘“‘A portion—larger, or smaller, in pro-
portion to the wildness of the bird—is cut off from the inner
plume of the pen feathers, so that the bird cannot hurt itself
if it attempts to leave the hand, and the external appearance
of the wing isnot impaired. The nostrils of the bird are then
touched with bergamot, or any odorous oil, by which it is
for a time so stupefied, as to perch quietly on the finger, or
to hop from one finger.to another. It may indeed attempt to

34 QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC.

fly away once or twice; but this is not often repeated especial-
ly if the experiment be tried in a dark place—as for example,
behind a curtain, which offers the further advantage that if
the bird should fall it is not liable to hurt itself. As soon as it
sits quietly on any one finger, another finger must be placed
in such a position as to cause the bird to step upon it; and as
soon as it is accustomed to hop quietly from one finger to
another, the main difficulty is overcome. For if when the
bird is gradually aroused from its state of stupefacation, it
perceives that its teacher does not use it roughly, it may by
degrees be taught to manifest perfect obedience to his com-
mands. Etc...... 1

This method may be allright for all we know, we have never
tried it, but we prefer the former mothod to taking any chance
of losing a bird by an overdose, which is liable to occur espec-
ially when the bird is first taken and is highly excited.

Patience, good care and kind treatment seldom fail to reward.

[wy W As Pets ww |

No other bird is more fascinating, more affectionate, more
pleasing, or more cleanly in its habits, than the quail. It is
far more affectionate than the pet bantams. His note-call isa
signal of a hearty ‘“Good Morning’’; a pleasant thought of a

day well spent.
“But lingers yet, it’s sweet ‘‘Bob-White.”

A cheerful companion at all times, but his training and
teaching is not of a trivial nature. Not the old bird, but the
youngest chick, just out of the shell, must be the subject of
our training, for a pet.

The better plan is to take the brood hatched out by a pet
bantam hen, preferably a Buff Cochin, or even better an incu-
bator hatched brood. In the latter case, however, we will

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC. 35

need the service of a brooder. (This will be referred to in
“Feed and Care of Chicks.’’) Place the foster-mother and
her brood in your office, place of business, shop, or home,
where they will come under your attention, so to speak, a hun-
dred timesaday. Their cage may be made suitable for the
place it is to occupy, but such as will admit of room for them
to run and stretch their tiny legs, due regard being given to
the question of sunlight, ventilation, and protection against
cats. Feed them often at first, but don’t overfeed them. In-
vite them to pick a morsel from your finger; if they have not
had their appetite fully satisfied, they will pick at it out of
curiosity, and finding it good to eat they are ready for another
invitation. Teach them to perch upon your finger; they may
resist a little at first, but patience and a little petting will en-
courage them. Invite their song by imitating the note-call of
their species. Under proper care and treatment they will
thrive and become very tame under your care and may be
taught to respond a cheery ‘*Bob-White”’ at your signal, as well
as come at your command.

Care should be taken to keep the little fellows out of hearing
distance of wild or semi-tamed birds, as they will very soon
teach them to be shy by their warning calls. For this reason
it is not advisable to attempt to tame chicks hatched by the
quail, unless a perfectly tame one, as they are taught the wild
traits from the moment they leave the shell.

We have not the time to devote to making perfect pets of our
birds, such as would like to do. Oneespecially, which we have
christened ‘‘Dick,’’ a male Valley Partridge, is the chief of our
attention. Heis quite content to perch upon our finger and
be caressed, but resents any false movements with a peck of
his bill. He isan all around mischief, and a fighter ‘‘from a-
way-back.’? The English Pheasant cocks take a back seat for
him and even our old speckled rooster says, “‘git-out.’’

Where a specialty is made of it, birds are easily tamed, taught

36 QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC.

to obey commands and sing, as such they bring a good price.

( W Mating & Nesting ¥W }

Here we have a subject, that a portion of which at least, is
is very interesting, and worthy of more discussion than we are
able to give it here. There is much to be developed and
brought out in the breeding of the quail. There is room for
the true fancier to display his scientific ability and ingenuity in
breeding for points and markings, an opportunity for interest-
ing experiment and the improvment of species, or the cross
breeding and bringing out of new species, or as we may then
be permitted to say, breed, or strains. Every fancier has, or
will develop, an ideal of his own and will work toward that
standard. Nature has by virtue of different locations and
climatic conditions, given us four variations in the Bob-White
alone, to work upon—the Bob-White, Florida Bob-White Texan
Bob-White and Cuban Bob-White, —all varying in the complex-
ion of their dress, from a light ashy to a deep brownish red.
In these we have an opportunity to enrich marking as well as
a few points.

Again we find other divisions of the quail family, some very
prolific but small in size, others of good size and attractive
plumage but not so prolific breeders. ‘‘Will they cross?’ we
are asked. They will if conditions are right, but we are not
prepared to say in this edition what the product would be. We
had the misfortune to lose a setting, of a cross between a Val-
ley Partridge cock and a Bob-White hen, this season and are
exceeding sorry to so state as we had hoped to give the result
in this edition. Well, but there’ll be trouble on hand when
you put them in a cage together!—Certainly there will, if the
conditions are not right, in which ease you are liable to lose
your female. Use a little ““Yankee Ingenuity” and the result

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC. 37

will be more favorable. Remove the birds from the rest of
flock in the fall or winter; place each in an adjoining cage and
allow them to remain so until spring opens up. When the
female begins to show signs of mating, place them together in
an aviary by themselves, removed from your other birds, and
we think you will obtain results. In cross mating any species
it is well to follow this plan,especially if it happens to be an odd
male, as he will pursue the female with great ardour and strip
her of her feathers, if she does not yield to his desires.

In mating up the Bob-White, or other varieties, the fanciers
object, if he be a fancier at all, is to improve the species in
size and markings, and to secure better layers. Inevery covey
we find some culls, some on the average and a few that are to
be prized above others. The latter are the ones we must look
to for results in the realization of our ideal.

The making up of the breeding pens and the selection of
birds should be done in October and November, and those
which are of the best markings, size, and of the hens that have
layed the best layers, selected to give the best results. The
quail is, in instances, polygamous to a certain extent, but it is
advisable to pair the birds up, as the cock is very affectionate
during the nesting season and frequently performs a portion
of the duties of incubation. As far as possible secure birds
from unrelated coveys, to make up your breeding pens; new
blood should add vitality to your stock, if well selected. Some
contend that better results are obtained where smaller aviaries
are used and a single pair placed in each. We have no argu-
ment to offer for this idea as we get the best possible results
from our birds with seven and eight pairs in an aviary.

As no standard has yet been made, and there is none except
the ideal in the eye of the fancier, much cannot be said along
the line of technical mating. However, whether mating for
fancy or market purposes, always select the best stock and use
the culls for table purposes.

38 QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC.

The mating season varies with different species, as will be
noted by a glance at the Ornithological portion of this work.
Location also governs the season to a certain extent. The
nesting season follows closely.

Quails prefer to build their own nests, and in the art of home
building they are expert architects, almost always concealing
their nest where even the most careful observer will not easily
detect it. The nesting boxes in the shelter house should be at
least six inches square, and are at the disposal of the hen. A
quantity of fresh dirt should be spread in each section, and in-
to each a handful of hay or straw stuffed, the arrangement being
left to the hen to shape up after her owntaste. After the first
brood is hatched out the nest boxes should be cleaned out and
prepared for a second nesting in the same manner.

{ W boss & Incubation Ww |

The common bob-white hen lays from twelve to twenty-five
eggs ata setting, or from twenty-four to fifty in a season.
This last number, however, is a high estimate, as the second
setting is quite frequently smaller than the first. The first
setting is generally large, from eighteen to twenty-five, while
the second ranges from twelve up, according to the lateness of
the season and the condition of the hen, after having hatched
and cared for her first brood. With the possible exception of
the first egg, the fertility is one hundred per cent.

Various theories are advanced as to the variation in numbers
of eggs layed. The fact that the hen can cover, and success-
fully hatch out twenty-five eggs, disproves the theory that the
instinct of the hen that she connot cover more, prompts her to
cease laying and commence to set when she has deposited some
twelve or thirteen eggs in the nest. We are inclined to believe
that where the settings are small, and especially the first, it is

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC. 39

due to the strain of the birds, improper feed and care, or to be-
ing disturbed during the laying period, and not to instinct or
too early setting as we find these same variations in the case of
birds in their native haunts, where conditions are invariably
at their best.

The only remedy for these small settings is the careful mat-
ing up of birds and the introduction of new blood. The idea
that you may cheat a quail, by removing an egg every other
day after nine or ten have been layed, and thereby secure more
eggs is absurd. Madam Quail is very particular about her
home apartments and any derangement, or the touching of an
egg before incubation has commenced, will be detected and
cause her to desert the nest and seek concealment elsewhere
for another setting. So that in case you wish the parent birds
to hatch out their own eggs, do not disturb them at all, keep
out of their private apartments altogether. They know how
to conduct the hatchery.

When the eggs are to be hatched out by a bantam hen or in
the incubator, the nest may be very cautiously observed to note
the deposit of the first egg, then the date recorded, and when
the hen has had time to complete her setting, about eighteen
to twenty days, or has just commenced to set, open the nest
and remove the eggs. When thus deprived of the first setting
she will almost immediately proceed to prepare another nest
and deposit another setting. In this manner three settings
are often secured in a season.

As soon as the eggs are taken from the quails nest, whether
from the wild or tame birds, they should be placed in the incu-
bator or under a bantam as soon as possible, so that should in-
cubation have commenced the germ will not be injured.

In selecting a bantam for hatching out quail eggs we would
recommend a buff cochin, as they are good setters and make
tender mothers. The nest can be made in a box sufficiently
deep to permit of the top being covered with screen, and not

40 QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC.

discommode the hen, about the time the chicks are to hatch.
The bottom should be covered with fresh dirt, and a sufficient
amount of clean straw or hay arranged in it to make a good
nest and we are ready for the hen, which should be FREE FROM
VERMIN and kept free from lice as these pests will cause the
loss of every chick if allowed to affect them, and eggs. Do
not give the hen more eggs than she can cover nicely. About
the time the eggs are to hatch, the 19th to 21st day, cover the
box with a wire screen to keep the chicks from escaping.
Remove the hen and chicks the day following their hatching to
their run quarters, as further noted under ‘‘Feed and Care of
Chicks. ”’

We have had considerable experience with one of Geo. H.
Stahl’s ‘‘Wooden Hen’? incubators, 50 capacity, running it ac-
cording to the regulations for hatching out chicken eggs. In
connection we have used his ‘‘Hen’’ brooder. Our experience
has been profitable in that we never lost an egg, and find our
incubator hatched birds to be as healthy and much tamer than
those hatched by the parent birds or bantam hens.

fw W Feed & Care W ¥ i

a

Here we come to the most important topic of our work, for
upon the feed and care of our birds greatly depends our suc-
cess. Here we have again to look into the secrets of Nature
for the proper articles of sustenance for them, to bring forth
satisfactory results, healthy and prolific birds. Every care
should be taken to supplant the conditions and food supplied by
Nature. A regular hour for feeding, a variation of food, plenty
of animal and vegetable matter, clean fresh water every day,
grit, and a good supply of road dust for dusting purposes.
The aviary should be so placed as to give plenty of sunlight
and shelter during the winter months, and in the summer to

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC. 41

permit of some shade during the extreme hot weather. In the
notes on our aviary we gave the requisites of the aviary and
runs for the comfort of the birds.

The quail is prone to rustle for a living, picking up a bit of
grain here, an insect there, spiced with a bit of vegetation
to flavor, and now and then a few grains of sand or fine gravel
to grind the mixture. Too much feed will make them too fat
and tend to make them lazy, while an insufficient quantity or
improper kind and variety will bring disease and unsatisfactory
results in eggs and chicks.

The observing student will note that that the wild quail are
found upon the feeding grounds, or along the roadsides, in
search of food, in the early morning hours and late in the
afternoon. Although the quail feeds more or less on insects
during the day, it is at these hours that it searches for solid
grain and seeds. Therefore, we make it a point to feed twice
a day, the first thing in the morning and about four thirty in
the afternoon.

The Spratts people have made extensive experiments along
the food lines of our game birds, especially adapted for pheas-
ants, which are also valuable in the culture of the quail.
Where their game food is used, it should be mixed with water
only sufficient to make it moist, not sloppy, a half pint of meal
when mixed being sufficient for fifteen or sixteen birds. This,
prepared a few hours before using and then mixed with a
tablespoonfull of ‘‘Crissel,’? makes a good morning feed. A
handfull of cracked corn, wheat, or buckwheat in the even-
ing, and asupply of green food once a day, will keep them
in good shape. In feeding grain give but one kind at a time
and change the feed from one to the other thus keeping
their appetite for each good. Where the birds are kept in
movable pens, which may be moved about the lawn, changing
the location daily, the giving of green food in the summer

42 QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC.

time is obviated. In the case of stationary pens, feed clover,
chick-weed, lettuce, oats, rye, etc, cut in half inch, or less
lengths. This should be given fresh daily and only in such
quantity as the birds will eat up well. In the winter seasbn
substitute clover meal.

Egg-O is also highly recommended by some fanciers as great
food for quail, but as we have never tried it we cannot speak
for or against it. Where the prepared foods are not obtainable
or not preferable, a wholesome feed fora morning meal is a
mash composed of clover meal, middlings, bran, ground beef
scraps and boiled potatoes. In the evening the grain food as
before stated.

Another good feed isa mash made of wormy currants or
raisins ground up and mixed with coarse ground corn meal,
bread scraps, middlings, and boiled potatoes. Merchants often
throw out currants and raisins that have become wormy, which
are alright for quail feed, and can be had for the taking of
them away. During the winter the mash should always be
fed warm in the mornings.

Among other good foods for quail are millet seed, kaffir corn,
hemp, sunflower seed, fresh ground green bone,maggots,meal-
worms, etc. From the food in the wild state, as noted in the
Ornithological portion of this work, other foods will be noted
that might be fed if they can be secured. Quail are also very
fond of ants and ants’ eggs. These may be secured by digging
out an ant-hill, placing dirt, ants, eggs and allina grain sack
and subjecting them to the heat of an oven for a short time to
cook them. Feed when desirable for a change, or mix with
mash. They make quite an article in the way of a substitute
for the insect food but should not be depended upon entirely as
a substitute. They also make excellent food for the little
chicks,

For a grit use crushed oyster shells ground fine, mica crystal
grit of the pigeon size, or coarse sand and fine gravel. A

“WE FOYS “Aq Aq est wary opoy (vrpP) HSC yd NIVLNACN

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC. 43

supply of grit must be kept where the birds can get it at any
time.

(_ Feed & Care of Chicks _|

Remove the chicks from the incubator soon after they are
hatched and place them in the brooder, to which may be at-
tached a screen run. This should, as all of the runs, etc., be
protected against cats, dogs and vermin. The first thing that
will apprise the} mind of the chicks is something to eat.
Their curiosity is aroused by every speck. Sprinkle a little
feed where they will notice it and they will soon find out what
is good to eat and you will have no trouble.

Where the chicks are hatched out by a bantam; Remove
them the following day, with their foster mother, to a run
you have previously constructed for them. If it is to be kept
indoors, it may simply be a screen pen 2 x 3 feet and two feet
in heighth. If itis to be for out-of-doors and for permanent
quarters until the chicks are old enough to be placed in the
large aviary, it should be made larger, say 2 or 8 by 6 feet
and two feet in heighth, covered with wire screen and a small
shelter house constructed at one end, with suitable openings
throughout for feed and care, also due protection against
their many enemies. Place this aviary on the lawn or grassy
plot and put the family in it. Move it frequently to new
ground. Right here let us caution that all houses and runs
should be placed on good high and dry ground. Damp ground
or depressions where water is apt to stand are dangerous to
the health of the birds, especially the young. Chicks should
not be allowed to run in the wet grass. Keep them in the
shelter house at such times.

If the chicks are hatched out by the parent birds they may
be cared for in the large aviary, a greater assortment of feed

44 QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC.

being required, as the old birds will help themselves to the
chick food in preference to their own.

In feeding young chicks great care should be taken not to
overfeed. An always hungry appetite with them is a whole-
some one, besides it saves the cleaning out of stale food which
should never be allowed to accumulate. Sour food of any kind
is unwholesome.

The feed for the first week should consist of corn meal and
middlings mixed with the raw yolks of one or more eggs.
Some fanciers say hard boiled eggs; we cannot agree with
them as it is the most indigestible food for little chicks. Feed
the above sparingly and often at first, four or five times a day.
To this may be added ants and ants’ eggs, and the bread
crumbs from your table will also be welcomed. A little later
maggots may be added to the diet. They may be produced by
exposing a piece of meat or sheep pluck to the flies and then
burying it in wet bran for a few days. A little millet seed can
now be given,and the third or fourth week you may commence
to merge them onto the softer food of the old birds.

Keep the water dishes clean and a supply of fresh water
always in them, not too much, as it don’t take a great amount
of water for a little quail, no bigger than the end of your
thumb, to get drowned in.

Give a little grit in the form of sand, and don’t fail to be
ever on your guard against lice.

[y Bnemies & Diseases v |

The quail in the wild state has many enemies, the biggest of
which is the ‘“‘game hog,’’ but we trust our efforts here will
not extend his operations. In the state we have to consider it,
its enemies are not so numerous, still there are a few, the
house cat being the worst. Next we may enumerate the dog,

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC. 45

rats, skunks, mink and insect vermin,fespecially lice. Ofthese
however, quail are usually free from if they have plenty of
road dust to dust themselves in.

Contagious diseases—we know of none. Occasionally a bird
is lost from old age, accident or improper care. If the houses
and runs are kept clean and fresh, well whitewashed or paint-
ed; the water dishes clean, and always filled with fresh water;
wholesome food and plenty of grit are fed; and plenty of dust-
ing material kept on hand for them, there is little likelihood of
disease entering the flock.

The only report that we have of any affliction is by Lyman
Belding of Stockton, California, who states ‘‘About one out of
ten of the young Plumed Quail in Nevada, Placier, Eldorado
and probably other counties in the Sierra Nevadas, are infest-
ed with tape worm. ...... AsI have never found a tape
worm in an adult I suppose the young afflicted quail die before
reaching maturity.”’

[yw W Proper Shipping ¥ v |

In the transportation of the quail very few people conceive
the idea that a cloth top, or padded top, crate is a necessity to
the safety of the birds while enroute. Quail when startled will
spring upwards with great force and would injure themselves
greatly if protective methods were not taken to guard against
such injury. Many quail that are shipped in wooden top crates
die from no other cause than that of injury to the head receiv-
ed by their springing upward and striking the top of the crate.
This, if no other, is the chief thought we want to enforce in
this section. Otherwise the crate may be made in any conven-
jent form, with means of watering and feeding while enroute.
Fasten the water dish stationary in the crate. In a sack place
a sufficient quantity of grain to feed the birds while enroute,

46 QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC.

such as wheat, buckwheat and cracked corn. Tie this to the
crate with instructions to express messengers, which should be
printed on your tag or label, to feed and water at 8a. m. and
5 p. m., and that the stock is domestic and for propagation.

( y W In Conclusion y |

You have read the fore-going pages of this work, and if you
have gone over them carefully, as you should have, the ques-
tion of whether it is much trouble or not, to raise quail, is set-
tled in your own mind. They are much easier to care for than
chickens, take less feed, are more cleanly, more interesting and
fascinating than chickens. If the work of caring for them is
properly attended to daily, and nothing left undone, the time
required will be a very small consideration in caring for a large
number of birds.

The pleasure you will secure from the the culture is limited
only by the attention yougive them. Treat them kindly, care
for them well and they will entertain all of your spare moments
with their antics and cheery note calls.

The work of keeping up theaviary and caring for the birds
is not heavy. The greatest care being the patience of feeding
and raising the young chicks not raised by the parent birds.
Yet it is a pleasure, rather than labor, to care for them if you
are in any way inclined to the Love of Nature.

As an article of food; it is unnecessary for us to say that the
meat is a prize and that quail on toast is a delicacy.

The profit inthe culture we have only to figure from a fanciers
standpoint. They are now being quoted from $3.00 to $3.50
per dozen on the markets. That the bob-white may be in-
creased in size under careful breeding, and command a better
market price, we do not doubt. Again, when it becomes per-
missible to sell live domesticated quail frys, we believe that the

QUAILOLOGY — DOMESTICATION, ETC. 47

spring chicken will feel worse than ‘“‘thirty cents.’’ Breeding
stock is far short of the demand at the present time. We
have none to sell now, but could place from eight hundred to
a thousand pairs in the next few weeks at $3.00 a pair, if we
had them, and for perfectly tame hand raised birds there are
many five dollar bills waiting. The ‘‘birds of the field’’ are
diminishing and the fanciers who supplant the supply with
domesticated stock on the market are sure of an increasing de-
mand for table use.

To those who wish to inquire further we would say, kindly
enclose a stamp and we will cheerfully respond to your inquir-
ies. To those in the culture we solicit an exchange of notes
for mutual benefit.

In the next section we have given a few letters from fan-
ciers and a few clippings from which we trust you may derive
some good.

An exchange of Natural History Notes on
any or all of the GALLINACEOUS BIRDS and
Letters of Experience In Domestication are
solicited for the benefit of the culture. —Ed.

FQN OX

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QUAILOLOGY.

Part Iil.
LETTERS & CLIPPINGS FROM FANCIERS
WHO RAISE QUAIL.

San Francisco, Calif.
Written especially for QUAILOLOGY.

The breeding of the California Valley or Mountain Quail in
confinement in my opinion cannot be successfully carried on,
while it is true one may raise a few, but not to such an extent
as to be termed successful.

I take this view of the subject from the experience of my-
self and friend, Ralph Miller of Santa Cruz, California, than
whom no person in this state has had more extended experience
or given the subject more careful consideration.

The California Valley Quail is a very game bird and one hard
to domesticate. Once disturbed the female seldom returns to
her nest. Some have been raised in confinement by the female
quail, but the most successful plan is to set the eggs under a
bantam hen. Mr. Miller and myself followed this plan with
fair success.

I build my aviary 35x8x6 feet high, and if possible around a
tree for the quail to hide and roost in. I also place brush and
leaves in the aviary for the quail to nest in. When the quail
have nested I take the eggs and place them under a bantam
hen in a suitable nest. Prior to placing the hen on the nest I
give her a good dose of buhach in order to kill all the vermin.
On the 23rd day the eggs should hatch. I then take the hen

50 QUAILOLOGY — LETTERS & CLIPPINGS.

and chicks and place them in a pen 8x4x2 feet high. I make
the sides and ends of lumber, and cover the top with one inch
mesh wire, and it should be built in a sunny place and have no
floor, and should be well supplied with sand and dust.
Across one end of this pen I build a box the width and heighth
of the pen and 2 feet deep, with slats in front, so as to allow
the chicks to enter the main pen but prevent the hen from do-
ing so, and so constructed that the chicks can go to her and so
the hen can get her head between the slats and call and feed
the chicks. I place the feed directly in front of the slats inthe
main pen, keeping the hen in this box until I see the chicks
are strong enough to allow the hen to enter the pen with them.

I feed finely chopped chick-weed or lettuce together with
boiled eggs, maggots, ground cornand mixed bird seed. I pro-
duce the maggots by exposing a piece of meat or a sheep pluck
to the flies, and then putting it in a barrel and covering it with
moist bran. Every three or four days I start a second lot so as
to always have some on hand when I start a new lot. By fol-
lowing this plan the Mongolian Pheasant can be successfully
raised, and I have had fair success with quail. I constantly
keep plenty of good sharp grit and plenty of green feed and
pure water in my aviary, and have never had any trouble with
my birds. About the time I expect the eggs to hatch, I place a
fine wire screen over the hen and nest in order that the chicks
cannot get out of the nest else they would run away. I also
remove the hen from the nest and place her in the pen as soon
as possible after the eggs are hatched. I feed six times a day.

From what I have been able to observe quail and pheasant
feed their young on insects for the first few days and until they
become able to look after themselves a little when they begin
toseek more solid food such as grain and grass seeds. I find
the maggots the best and most easy procured substitute to take
the place of the insects, etc, that the birds would get in their
natural haunts.

QUAILOLOGY — LETTERS & CLIPPINGS. 51

The propagation of game birds such as the California Valley
Quail in confinment is expensive and requires a great deal of
attention. From what experience I have had, I believe that 10
pairs of quail will produce more young in their natural state
than 50 pairs willor can be made to produce in confinment.

When one has a piece of cover where quail are breeding, he
should allow no shooting at anything during the entire close or
breeding season. To allow shooting in the vicinity. of ground
when quail are breeding disturbs them and they will not do
near as well as if they were left entirely alone and in no way
disturbed or frightened. They will pair earlier, lay more eggs,
and I have known them to raise two broods of young in one
year when they have been entirely undisturbed in any manner.

In my opinion the California Valley Quail is the gamiest as well
as the most beautiful of the whole quail family.

WALTER R. WELCH.

SEBSSES
Rearing Quail In Confinement.
RECREATION, N. Y. City. ($1 00 per year.)
Union City, Pa.

In answer to David Shafer’s questions in February RECREA-
TION, would say I have bred many quail in captivity, and with
considerable success.

It is best to get birds late in the fall for breeding, and keep
them through the winter, asthey lose much of their shyness,
if properly cared for, by spring.

My breeding pens were 12 foot long, 8 feet wide, and 7 feet
high. The entire front and 2-3 of the roof were made of woven
wire, one inchmesh. The back and sides were boarded up;
also about 1-3 of the roof. The pens should have no floor. To
keep out rats, sink one inch mesh wire netting into the ground
about 13 inchesdeep. Rats are the worst enemies of young
quail in captivity. Care must be taken that the groundis free

52 QUAILOLOGY — LETTERS & CLIPPINGS.

from depressions in which the rain could form pools.

Each pen should contain a plentiful supply of loose straw
and prairie grass for the young birds to hide in. A lot of cut
brush in one corner or along one entire end, makes the best
resting place.

The best results will be had by keeping only one pair of
adult birds in a pen.

After they have been placed in their pens they should be
disturbed as little as possible.

The pens should be so built that food and water can be sup-
plid without entering them.

My henslaveraged 12 eggs a setting, although I have had them
lay as many as18. A few days before it is time for the young
to appear! begin feeding hard boiled eggs and stale crackers
mixed, together with dried ants’ eggs and plenty of seeds.

When the young birds appeared I gave them a liberal supply
of meal worms, and sometimes a little boiled beef, chopped
fine.

In about six weeks the young are able to take care of them-
selves. Then they can be removed; and, if not too late in the
season, the old birds will at once begin laying again. How-
ever, I seldom had good sucees with the second brood. The
young never seemed so strong, nor did they grow so fast as
the first.

I always let the hen do her own setting, but know of sev-
eral persons who placed the eggs under domestic fowls. ......

C. T. METZGER.
(Note.—Mr. Metzgers present address is unknown.—Ed.)

SS SNE (-—~4
ame si a a=

Natural History Notes.
RECREATION, N. Y. City. ($1.00 per year.)
I feed my quails cracked corn, whole wheat, buckwheat,
hemp seed, barley and maggots. Give each kind of feed sep-
aratly and only once a day. Give that at noon. Also plenty

“appzpys “AC Aq opp wor oo (VZe) “ESAIALAVd QHIVOS CHITTAI-LANLISHHO

QUAILOLOGY — LETTERS & CLIPPINGS. 53

of fresh water. Be sure the quails have grit; get mica crystal
grit, pigeon size. Inthe breeding season feedin the morning
a mash consisting of 1 teacup of bran, 1 teacup of corn meal,
1-2teacup of beef scraps, 1 teaspoonful of Egg-O; mix with
hot water and feed hot. This is enough for 20 quails. Do not
make the mash loppy. Wet it just enough to make it stick
together. Give finely cut oyster shells.

If these directions are followed quails ought tolay lots of

eggs and hatch strong young birds. We raise hundreds every
year of each variety.

Egg-O is the best thing known to feed any and all wild birds.
I have fed it for 6 years and can raise 85per cent. Will
answer any questions on care of wild game birds,
C. L. Darlington, Stoneham, Mass.
Se seae

Ca a,

A Successful Fancier.

Hope McIntyre of Sioux City, Iowa,writes us a very interest-
ing letter with reference to his success in raising quail in
confinement. .

In part he says: I purchased a live female quail from a boy
who had trapped it in the fall of 1898. I immediately cut one
wing and put it in the window of the Niagara restaurant, in
which I am interested. I left it uncaged and no screen. For
the first week had all kinds of trouble in keeping the bird in
its new quarters, but with persistent work and gentle treat-
ment the little one at last showed signs of contentment. Two
weeks later another female was secured by the same boy and
came into my possession. I found no such trouble with it as
with the first bird, both growing more like pets than wild
birds eating berries and green stuff such as lettuce, etc. from
my hand.

In the spring of 1899 Conductor Butler of the Sioux City &

54 QUAILOLOGY — LETTERS & CLIPPINGS.

Northern road, who was a great admirer of the birds, brought
amale from up in the country. The three were kept as an
attraction in the window of the restaurant, where thousands of
people looked at them and wondered at their domestic nature.

As spring advanced I noticed the male picking up pieces of
straw, dead grass etc. Suspecting they were going to nest, I
removed them to a coop on the ground, against the side of the
barn. The coop is sixteen feet long, eight feet wide and eight
feet high, rat proof. The south and front of coop is half inch
mesh wire. Top and sides both sealed. I water them every
day and feed screenings, cracked corn and plenty of green
stuff. Threw in the rakings of the yard , an armful of straw
and fixed several little hiding places and left them in their
glory. Allowed no one to disturb them or in the coop. Had
water trough so arranged as to fill it from the door without
molesting them.

The result was the last week in June to find thirteen little
fellows racing around the coop.”’

He now has a large flock of very tame birds and has dispos-
ed of a great many at good figures.

SIPesSs
Success With Several Varieties.
Written especially for QUAILOLOGY.

To write an article on the culture of quail such as I would
like to write would fill a book of many pages but I will try and
condense my thoughts so that I can give to you my experience
on this subject in the limited space allowed me.

I have raised quail from the time when they were two or
three days old to grown birds,also from the eggs hatched
under the mother quail, under the bantam hen, and in the
incubator.

I have been asked a great many times what I found the best,
and have answered it thus; it depends a great deal on the per-

PAIR OF DOMESTISATED BOB WHITE.
(54a) Photographed in aviary. Owned by H. A. Boies.

QUAILOLOGY — LETTERS & CLIPPINGS. 55

son; if you have lots of time to give to the little ones either of
the following ways will prove satisfactory. As soon as the
mother quail has finished laying, remove the eggs very care-
fully and put them under a small bantam hen, I think the co-
chin breed to be the best if you can get one not too large, as
they will cover the eggs much better than other varieties, but
what ever kind you use be sure that it is free from vermine.

If you can run an incubator try hatching the eggs in thls,
you will find it very interesting. After the eggs have hatched
and the little ones have been with the mother about twent-four
hours, remove them to asmall brooder, by this time they will
have learned to eat and you will find them very interesting
little pets. Quails that have been raised in a brooder are as
tame as little chicks, and you can handle them at will for they
have no mother to frighten them, while those raised by the
bantam hen are more timid, and will not as a general thing let
you touch them. Only as the last resort let the mother quail
raise her own young, for unless she is a very tame bird you will
not see very much of her little ones, and even then they will be
taught to fear you.

I keep my young quail indoors the first week, then I remove
the brooder out-doors into a pen made as follows: Make a
frame out of some light stuff, four foot long, two foot wide and
one and a half foot high, use a four inch board around the bot-
tom, then fasten fine wire netting on oneside and both ends;
make the top seperate and after covering it with wire netting,
fasten with hinges. On the side left open build the shelter;
make it four foot long, two foot deep, with a front oneand one
half foot hgih and a back one foot high. Under this shelter
place your brooder; for the first two or three nights you will
have to put the little fellows in, but they will soon learn to
go in themselves whenever they get cold. Leave them in
this pen until they are one third grown, then put them in
the larger aviaries where they are to be kept.

56 QUAILOLOGY — LETTERS & CLIPPINGS.

My large aviaries are sixteen feet long, ten feet wide, and
six feet high, with a one foot board around the bottom, and
are covered with one inch mesh wire netting; on the south side
I build a tight water-proof shed, I make it the full width of
the aviary, six foot deep with a front six feet high and a back
four feet; the top, back, and two ends are boarded up good
and tight, while the front or south side is left open; be sure
and have the ground higher under the shelter, so the water
will not runin. I keep hay on the ground for them to roost
on also a few evergreen boughs for them to hide in. In the
winter I put some evergreen boughs over the front of the coop
to help keep the snow out. For entering the aviary and coop,
I have a door on either side next to the coop. These aviaries
will accomodate from fifteen to twenty pair of old birds.

The quail will build her own nest, but it is best to fixa
place for them to build it in, which can be easily done by fas-
tening a board about one foot square one foot from one side in
the back of the coop, over this little pen place some evergreen
boughs, so as to hide it; the quail will soon find this and will
prodably build their nests there.

If you want your pets to do well they must have good
wholesome food and the best of care. I feed my young quail
for the first week on a mash made as follows:—Take equal
parts of corn meal and middlings, to which a little brand and
the raw yolk of one or two eggs is added; feed every two or
three hours and only what they will eat up clean, as they be-
come older I do not feed so often, it is better to keep them a
little hungry than to overfeed; after the first week add to the
above a little ground beef and some green stuff such as lettuce
or celery tops, boiled potatoes are also very good, in addition
to the above throw a handful of millet seed into the pen every
day; after the second week add an even portion of clover meal;
I feed this mash until they are a third or half grown then I
feed the mash in the morning and grain in the evening; I think

QUAILOLOGY — LETTERS & CLIPPINGS. 57

a mixture of wheat, and buckwheat to which a very little
cracked corn is added is the best; in the winter have the mash
hot and add more cornto the grain mixture; outside of their
regular meals feed green grass or clover cut in proper lengths,
and a small quanity of fresh lean meat ‘cooked and cut into
suitable pieces; always keep a supply of grit and fresh clean
water within easy reach, and see that the drinking vessels are
kept clean.

I have also raised the Mexican and California varieties and
cannot see but that one variety is as easy to raise as another.

The quail fancy, practically speaking, is new though they
have been kept as pets as far back as the year 1794, but as a
fancy it has only started in the last year and whether it is to
live or die depends upon the way it is supported by our brother
fanciers. Some, to be sure will make a failure of it while
others will make a grand success, but we must all take hold
and.do the best we can and let our followers profit by the mis-
takes we have made, and we will soon have the raising of quail,
whether for pleasure or profit, one of the leading fancies.

The quail as we all know are rapidly disappearing and it will
not be very long before they will be a bird of the past; they
will be hunted until the last one is gone. There remains but
one way to save this noble bird, and that is through the fancy,
so brothers let’s put all of our efforts towords saving the noblest
of all our game birds, the ‘“‘QUAIL.’’

H. A. Botss, Detroit, Mich.
SSeS
Quails In Domestication.--Extracts.
RECREATION, N. Y. City. ($1 00 per year.)

Several years ago I procured 2 pair of quails from a friend in

Oklahoma. I placed them in an open cage, 5x12 feet, in the

garden, exposed to all kinds of weather. This was close tothe
chicken yard, a fact which I afterwards regretted, as quail are

58 QUAILOLOGY — LETTERS & CLIPPINGS.

dainty in their habits, and if given ample opportunity for dust
baths, keep free from vermin. ... When 15 eggs had been laid,
they prepared to set, when the male escaped. ... The plucky lit-
tle hen assumed all responsibility and proceeded to hatch the
eggs, which she did in 25 days, hatching the entire 15 birds. ...

Last year I again had 2 hens and one cock, and they mated as
before, declining polygamy most emphatically. ... During the
season they laid 54 eggs, but did not set at all,...so I placed a
number of fertile eggs in the...incubator and hatched several of
them, placing them in a brooder. ... At that particular time I
was away from home, and as they were entirely without attend-
ance, it was not surprising that on my return all but one were
dead. How that one survived I do not know,... When only 6
weeks old and before he was fully fledged, I had another small
hatching from the incubator, and I placed them with him. At
first he seemed to consider them grasshoppers, and treated
them as such, but in a day or 2 not only tolerated them but, to
my surprise, actually brooded them....

Wild mustard,...they eat greedily, leaving grain untouched
if they can get the seeds of this weed.

...Anyone who will adopt the quail as a protege, as I have
done, will find himself well repaid for the trouble. They are
not only more affectionate than our common poultry, but vastly
more interesting. ... Quail are much like turkeys when young,
a very little will kill them, especially cold or wet; but with a
dry and moderately warm place they are sure to thrive.

J. T. Blandford, Buffalo, N. Y.

“PPpPF US “AT Aq opty WTF Opo A (vege) (<TsweT) “TIVHO Nv edcune

QUAILOLOGY.

Part IV.
A DIGEST OF GAME LAWS.

We have endeavored to make this section as concise as pos-
sible to convey the desired information. From the U.S. Agri-
cultural Department, Bulletin 16-1901, we take the following:

Game For Propagation.

“The subject of transportation of game for breeding purposes
is one that has received too little attention at the hands of law
makers. In some States the prohibition against export is so
broad as to include not only dead game, but also live animals
and birds intended for propagation..... Maine has recently in-
augurated a departure in requiring every person who imports
game to first secure a permit from the commissioner of inland
fisheries and game, under penalty of a fine of $50 to $500.
Delaware, Nevada, North Carolina, and Tennessee have strin-
gent laws prohibiting the export of quail, dead or alive, out of
the State....... Canadian laws are less restrictive. The Do-
minion places no restriction on the exportation of live game,
and several of the Provinces authorize the proper authorities to
issue licenses for shipments of game intended for breeding pur-
poses. A few States have adopted this principle, and some
others make exceptions in nonexport laws, or permit possession
at any time of game intended for propagation.”’

From Biological Survey Circular No. 29. ‘“The Department
issues no permits for shipping birds from one State to another.

60 QUAILOLOGY — DIGEST OF GAME LAWS.

In some States, as in California, the Board of Fish and Game
Commissioners is authorized to issue permits for shipping birds
for propagating purposes, and a few States, such as Michigan
and New Jersey, make exceptions in their game laws in the
case of birds captured for breeding purposes; but when a State
forbids the exportation of birds without exception, interstate
commerce in birds from that State is in violation of the Lacey
Act, whether the birds are captured during the open season or
whether they are intended for propagation or not.’’

T. S. Paimer’s Decision.

In response to an inquiry made of Mr. T. 8. Palmer, Ass’t In
Charge Game Preservation. Biological Survey, Washington, D.
C., we quote his reply.

“1. In general the law does not permit the sale of quail out
of season, whether raised in captivity or not unless, as in the
case of some State laws, there is a special proviso to this effect.

2. The law prohibits the shipment of such quail unless there
is special provision for the shipment of birds for propagation.

3. Quail cannot be lawfully trapped or netted for purposes
of propagation if the law does not provide for their capture for
such purposes.

4, In the absence of a specific provision for propagation the
general law relating to possession or capture of game applies
to quail in captivity as well as to wild birds.’’

From the preceeding paragraphs it will be plainly seen that
those in charge of game preservation are heartily in accord
with the fanciers in making provisions for the propagation, if
not domestication, of our game animals and birds. However, it
rests with the fanciers in their own State to urge regulations
in the exceptions to laws in the case of game birds for propa-
gating purposes. While it is true in a sense that the quail after
being domesticated become individual property, never-the-less
a number are violating the letter of the law, yet not the intent
thereof, as the law makes game birds the property of the State,

QUAILOLOGY — DIGEST OF GAME LAWS. 61

unless special provisions are made for propagation and breed-
ing purposes.

The following table shows the Close Seasons for Quail and
Partridges in the United States and Canada, taken from the
1902 law and revisions, with notation of exceptions in case of
birds for propagation, etc.

Close Seasons, Exceptions to General Law, 1902.

* STATE QUAIL - PARTRIDGE REMARKS
NORTHERN
KX | Maine............... Dec. 1-Oct. 1
14 |New Hampshire.....|Dec. 15-Sept. 15
XK |Vermont...........- Jan, 1-Sept. 1
Massachusetts ...... Dec, 1-Oct. 1 (1) w
Rhode Island....... Dec 16-Oct. 15 o
Connecticut......... Dec. 1-Oct, 1 3
X |New York (1)....... Dec, 16-Nov. 1 Be
Long Island........ Jan. 1-Nov. 1
+-F |New Jersey........- Jan. 1-Nov. 10 "dS
Pennsylvania........ Dec. 16-Oct. 15 a
Delaware.......-.6 Jan. 1-Nov. 15
+ |Maryland (1)........ Dec, 25-Nov. 1 3 |
6 | Dist. Columbia......| Mar. 15-Nov. 1 Bie es
Virginia (1).........6 Jan. 1-Oct. 15 & ©
West Virginia....... Dec. 20-Nov. 1 qk &
Kentucky.......... . (Jan. 1-Nov. 15 (=)
B {Ohio ....- cece eeceae Dec. 2-Nov. 10 a oO
X-E , Michigan............ Dec. 1-Oct. 20(19) “ws &
Indiana......6. e+ Jan. 1-Nov. 10 e &
D |Mlinois.... ........- Dec. 20-Nov. 1 (7) S 2
A! Wisconsin..........- To Sept. 1903 a aS
Minnesota........... Dec. 1-Oct. 1 oO 6
TO Wass 04 pices wie Jan. 1-Nov. 1 a o
X |Missouri............ Jan, 1-Nov. 1 2 Y
Kansas...... saan eis's Jan, 1-Dec. 1 3
Nebraska......-++-- To Nov. 1, 1903 ra]
South Dakota ...... Jan. 1--Sept, 1 &
X |North Dakota To Sept. 1, 1905 sy
Montana........005- At all times sy
~A | Wyoming ....... eee | cece r ener e cee
%% Gclenado: aialavaluigisteeieta At all times is
SOUTHERN a
North Carolina (1)..|Mar. 15--Nov. 1
South Carolina...... Apr. 1--Nov. 1
Georgia.....---100- Mar. 15--Nov. 1
6 |Florida............ .| Mar. 1--Nov. 1
+ |Alabama (1)......-- Mar. 2--Nov. 15
Mississippi.......... May 1--Oct. 1

H | Tennessee (1).....--- Mar. 1--Nov. 1

62 QUAILOLOGY — DIGEST OF GAME LAWS.

Close Seasons, Exceptions to General Law, 1902.
(Continued. )

* STATE | QUAIL - PARTRIDGE REMARKS
Arkansas........... | Mar 1--Oct. 1 yg
Louisiana........... Apr. 1--Nov. 1 ws 2

Qt | LORAG:.,..- cases acs seceiers Mar. 15--Oct. 1 ba 2

G |Oklahoma........... Feb. 1--Oct. 16 s |

+ |New Mexico........ Mar. 1--Oct. 1 oe 2 s

A |Arizona............. Mar. 1--Oct. 15 o 4s

nS
PACIFIC 5 Ho

B |California........... Feb. 1-Oct. 1 2 Bey

B | Nevada...........4. Mar. 16--Sept 1 (2) e Y¢gq

98) [Ota cad oats tee At all times (1) & 4H =
Idaho...........5.4- Dec. 1--Nov. 1 asd 6
Washington.... .... To 1908 8 a
Oregon (1).....-...- Dec. 1-Oct. 1 &

B |Hawaii..........---- Mar. 1-Sept. 16 BR

CANADA Fu 5
British Columbia.... | At all times = =

X |Manitoba........... Jan. 1- Aug. 1

Ontario.... ... Tennis Dec. 1--Nov. 1

(*) Prohibited Methods—Traps, Nets, etc. + Killing by other means than
shooting with agun. 5 Birds; possession of traps, nets or snares also pro-
hibited. 6 Quail, exceptononesown premises 14 Quail 27 Taking quail
or partridges withnets. 28 Partridge during close season; quail at all times.
X Indicates simple prohibitions,

(*) Exceptions to lawin case of birds for propagation, A Possession for
propagation permitted during close season. B Exceptionin case of game
birds for propagation; permit required from State Commissioners. C Im-
portation allowed on permit from Commissioners; parks may exchange with
individuals within or without the State. D Lawful to export game birds
captured within the State, under license from State, E State Game Ward-
en authorized to issue permit to capture any game birds for propagation if
not for sale. F Importation only, for propagation. G Exception in case of
fine birds captured for domestic or scientific purposes, provided that not
more than one pair may be shipped at one time. H Exceptions in certain
counties.

Figures after State or date. (1) Indicates County exceptions in which
special protective legislation exists and close season varies from that of the
general Statelaw. (2) Certain species. (7) Sale. (19) Under the old law
which will stand.

CALIFORNIA PARTRIDGE.
(62a) Photo from life by Dr. Shu feldt.

QUAILOLOGY — A TOAST. 63

Quail Toast.
(Woops & WATERS, N.Y.City, Quarterly, 35c a year)

‘*Bob-bob-white!”’
O’er the meadow comes the greeting,
Clear and sweet, with echo fleeting
Back along the woodland’s shadow,
Faint returning o’er the meadow—
“‘Bob-bob-white!’’

“‘Bob-bob-white!”’
Up the lark springs from the heather,
Thrilling praise of balmy weather;
But the daisies blink and glisten
As they bow their heads and listen—
‘*Bob-bob-white!’’

‘‘Bob-bob-white!”’
At the banquet of the morning
With its crystal drops adorning,
Like a dream of music floating
Rings the toast in silv’ry noting—
“‘Bob-bob-white!’’

“Bob-bob-white!”’
O’er the meadow comes the greeting,
Clear and sweet, the echoes fleeting
Back along the woodland’s shadow,
Faint returning o’er the meadow—
“‘Bob-bob-white!”’

CHARLES SLOAN REID.

64 QUAILOLOGY — TAXIDERM.

Taxiderm = Taxidermy.

=> 2>-.—C~C~C

RULY THE POSSESSOR of The Art of Taxidermy
T hath been endowed with a touch from the God of All
Nature. As he carefully removes the coat that covered
the once graceful form of bird or beast and prepares for it a
new body, we but wonder at the patience and skill he has at-
tained. Yet see him now, as he shapes the specimen into a
beautiful form that would invite envy from the bird or beast
himself were he there to view his likeness. How cunning the
workman, what pleasure he takes from his efforts to reproduce
Nature in his den for himself and others admiration. Truly it
is Art, stolen from Nature, yet why can not we too partake of
the lessons and master the Art?

We can, we do, not by his method but by others we are more
capable of mastering, that require less time, less practice, yet
for a moderate display of skill there is plenty of room if we
desire it. Thousands are using this method and you can learn
as wellas they. It is the Taxiderm Method of Embalming
whereby only the viscera and eyes are removed and the remain-
der of the body left in, and preserved with Taxiderm, insuring
the natural and exact form of the once living specimen.

The tools you require, the Taxiderm compound and the full
course of instructions are within your reach, a complete outfit
for Five Dollars, while should you follow our ‘‘remover of Nat-
ures coat’’ you will expend hundreds of dollars for treatises
and tools, and years of experience to reach that portion of the
Ideal of Perfection embodied in your first Taxiderm Specimen.

Se Sa Van s Sm
FS EiSaas

QUAILOLOGY — ADVERTISEMENTS. 65

Taxiderm = A Quail.

The following Instructions are given for Preserving and Mounting a
Quail by the TAXIDERM METHOD.

PRESERVING:—Lay the quail on a piece of paper, on its back; careful-
ly part the feathers and cut through the walls of the abdomen from the
lower end of the breast bone to the vent. Remove intestines, liver, etc,
through this opening being careful not to soil the plumage. Wipe away
the blood and profuse matter with a piece of cotton and powder the cavity
with TAXIDERM, well up into the lung cavity. Loosen the skin from the
breast and insert a small quantity of TAXIDERM; also insert a thin layer of
saw-dust to allow for slight shrinking of the flesh, and to give the speci-
men a plump appearance. Treat the legs in the same manner, skinning
them out through the body cavity, making several incisions in the flesh
and powdering them well. Fill the abdominal cavity with saw-dust, cotton
or tow, tow preferred, and sew up the skin, beginning at the breast bone
and sewing down, after which, carefully lay the feathers over the incision.
Make an incision along the underside of the wings and thoroughly powder
the fleshy part. Next remove the eyes from their sockets, wiping away all
watery matter and powder the cavities well, filling them temporarily with
cotton. Open the mouth and with a scalpel make an incision well back in
the roof into the brain cavity and force a quantity of TAXIDERM into the
opening. Clean the throat with a small swab and powder it well, filling it
up with saw dust or tow. Fasten the mandibles together with a thread
to hold them in position until dry. Your specimen is now ready for |]
mounting.

MountTING—Take a wire about two inches longer than the bird from
toes to point of bill, sharpen it with your file and run it up the back of
the leg inside the skin, through the body cavity, neck and out through the
skull, allowing it to protrude about an inch to aid in handling. Take an-
other wire about two-thirds as long as the first and after sharpening the
point pass it up the: back of the other leg inside of the skin, through the
body cavity, and out throngh the back. Hook it over and draw it back
into the body to form a firm support, carefully concealing it by replacing
the feathers over it. Straighten the legs and run the protruding wires
through holes in a perch or base and fasten them securely. Now bend the
bird into its natural or desired position. It is well to be a careful observer of
bird life that you may be able to give to your mounted specimens life-like atti-

tudes. Remove thecotton fromthe eye cavities, powder well and fill with
putty, inserting No 8 hazel glasseyes drawing the eyelids down over the edges
of the eye. Secure the wings in position with pins. Elevate the tailby a pin
run into the body below the tail. Hat or belt pins are very good for these pur-
poses. Wind the plumage down in place with cops or cotton strips and set the
quail away to dry after which they can be removed and the wings and feathers
will hold their place.

ica For Outfits, Full Instructions, Prices, Etc, see following page.

66

QUAILOLOGY — ADVERTISEMENTS.

——————

‘PRICE,
LIST

TAXIDERM
SUPPLIES

For Sale By

TAXIDERM CO

Little Sioux,
lowa.

Outfit No. | $5.00.

Consists of:— 2 Pounds of TAXIDERM, (a sufficient
quantity of the embalming compound to preserve
the flesh of 100 birds the size of a quail), Book of
Instructions, Scalpel, Eye Hook, Taxidermists For-
ceps and Tweezers, Assostment of Glass Eyes,
Cops, Artificial Leaves, Perches and Support Wires.

Sent by express upon receipt of price, $5.00

Outfit No. 2. $2.00.

Consists of:—1 Pound of TaxIDERM, Scalpel, Eye
Hook, 25 cent Assortment of Glass Eyes, Cops and
Book of Instructions.

Sent by express upon receipt of price, $2.00.

Tools and Supplies,

Taxiderm, per pound by express .............. $1,00
Scalpel, Ebony Handle......................000. 60c.
Eye Hook, fancy milled handle................. 25c.
Taxidermists Tweezers............cccecccceees 250,

ee ‘© Forceps, nickel plated............ Te.
Bird Lime, for catching small birds, per bottle. 25c.
Cops, for winding plumage, each .............. 10e.
Wire, best annealed iron, 18 inches long, price per
pound, carriage extra......... kee ccc e cece 25c.
Sheilds, for game pieces, by express, small....7hc.
medieum.............. $1.25; large.............. $1.60
Artificial Leaves, per gross, assorted............ We

Rackham’s

CAN FILL YOUR ORDERS

Poultry Direct’y

Contains the full names and addresses of over
twenty thousand Poultry Breeders, Exhibition
Judges, Specialists, Experts, Merchants, Sup-
ply Dealers, Manufacturers and others inter-
ested in the poultry business, Also a list of
Clubs, Papers, Books, Incubators, Foods, Medi-
cines and all appliances.

Price 1,00, postpaid.
Chamberlain Publishing Co,
East Orange, N. d.

Fok QUAIL, PHEASANTS,
PIGEONS, DOGS, FERRETS,
And all varieties of Pet Stock.

H. A. BOIES,
Detroit, Michigan,

QUAILOLOGY — ADVERTISEMENTS.

67

# AMERICAN BIRD MAGAZINE

Profusely Hlustrated with Photographs of Wild Birds from Life.
Fresh, Interesting and Instructive Bird Literature. « « « « «

EVERYTHING ORIGINAL

Each number contains TEN BIRDS IN NATURAL COLORS for
identification. Monthly $1 a year; single copies 10 cents. » « «

FREE TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS
Every one subscribing now to THE AMERICAN BIRD MAGAZINE is
entitled to a life-sized enlargement of the ‘‘Chippy Family” in
natural colors, on paper 12 x 20 inches. This is probably the best photo-
graph ever taken of an entire family of live wild birds.
SPECIAL.—To all who mention QUAILOLOGY we will send Vols, I
and II, and subscription for 1903. with the “Chippy Family” for $2.50.

Address
AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY «= « Worcester, Mass.

68

QUAILOLOGY — ADVERTISEMENTS.

200-Egg Incubator or $12"

The simplicity of the Stahl incubators created s demand that forced production
to such great proportions it is now possible to offer a first-class
bator for $12.80. This mew incubator is an enlargement of the famous

WOODEN HEN

recognized the most perfect small hatcher. This new incuba-

toriatboroughly well made; isa marvel of simplicity, andso
erfect in its working thatithatchesevery feriileazg. Write

Ter anything you want to know about incubatora,

for the new free illustrated catalogue with 14 volored views.

GEO. H. STAHL, Quincy, Hl.

Produkte Y ccna, isa a Sead ae ed ees

eg incu-

Send

PHEASANTSes.,....

Golden & Ringneck Pheasants

Bred from high grade stock.

White Cochin Bantams

Eggs from prize winners $2.00.

Mineral Tonic mma.

This tonic solves the problem of raising
either English or Golden Pheasants.
The old birds will be strong and vigor-
ous, eggs fertile and ninety-five per cent
of all the birds hatched may be raised
by the use of this tonic. Average cost
to prepare, 15 cents per gallon.

Formula with valuable hints for feed-
and caring for pheasants $1.00.

Books.

Prices are for books postpaid.
BIRDS OF MICHIGAN............06 30c
Notes on the NATURAL HIsToRY OF

LABRADOR. .....0..cccccaeee 25¢
BIRD LIFE IN LABRADOR.......... 25c¢

BIRD PRESERVING AND MOUNTING, 35c¢
Apgars POCKET Kry OF BIRDS... ..30¢

Davies NESTS AND EGGS oF Nortu A-
MERICAN Birps 5th ed illustrated, $1.65

PRE Historic IMPLEMENTS, ... $1.65
CHINESE SCHOOL BOOKS.......... 15c

BELGIAN Hane Coursg, twenty lessons
in care, breeding and judging, ....$2.50
PIGEONS & ALL ABOUT THEM.. $1.00

« x For sale by the , ,

M. G. RICHARDSON, Elgin, Illinois, | TAXIDERM CO, Little Sioux, Ia.

QUAILOLOGY — ADVERTISEMENTS.

69

Gem Gity Bird Store, Dayton, Ohio.|
xR OG. Pe. L.RMB, Proprietor.

a

Quail.

ly at reasonable prices.

Fie Beecvenecse Peseorre Vo reese eee eee Oren e eam antes ee eeeeeeeeee “Hees seeteeeese ON
Largest dealer in California Valley, | Mountain,

Mexican or Scaled Partridge.

I have the stock on hand to fill your orders prompt-

German and European

PIGEONS

pages, illustrated—strictly up to date.
The only complete Pigeon Book published
in the last twenty years. Cuts of all the
best-known varieties. Standards of all
varieties. Tells how to build loft, buy,
mate, breed, feed, how to ship to cus-
tomers, how to prepare for shows and
ship to shows, how to prevent and cure
disease, tells which are the best breeders
and feeders, tells best varieties to breed
in a city and which in small towns, tells
how to mate for color—in fact, it tells
just what it has taken the author forty-
five years to learn by actual experience.
Endorsed by all the leading fanciers in
America. Hundreds of letters praise it.
Fourth edition now out. To get it
promptly send one dollar to
TAXIDERM CO, LITTLE Sioux, Iowa.

$1.00 = 25C.

This Coupon returned ;

to us prior to Jan. 1 04
will be credited as 25c.
on a $2.00, or $1.00 on a
$5.00 TAXIDERM Outfit.

Q, TAXIDERM, CO LITTLE Sroux, Iowa

Oren rr "wv O

BRONZE TURKEYS
PHEASANTS — GINSENG
Golden Pheasant Picture, in natural
colors, 18 x 24, 25c.

Pheasant and Quail Rearing, with
colored plates, 650c. Larger Works
$1.50, $8.00.

N. B. CURSTEAD,
OLIPHANT FURNACE,

Pa.

Our Monthly Publication ;
will keep you posted on our §
Mailed |

work and methods.
Free to the

70 QUAILOLOGY — ADVERTISEMENTS.

DR. GEO. W. LITTLE,
38 FANGIER, —<—
Breeds Hardy Varieties of High-Class
Fancy Pheasants and Quails.
47 Ridge Street, GLENS FALLS, N. Y.

e7@ Os

The Following Members of the

W W PHEASANT FAMILY W W

are in my Breeding Yards:

Jungle Fowl
Impeyan
Tragopan
Temmincks Tragopan
Manchurian or Eared Pheasant
Vulturine Guinea Fowl

Elliot’s
Reeve’s
Versicolor
Swinhoe’s
Silver
Golden
Hybred (Gold and Amherst) Lady Amherst
English Black Neck
Oregon Mountain Quail
California Valley Quail
Bob White Quail
Scaled Partridge
Red Leged Partridge

Any of the last five make a nice show in
an aviary with Pheasants. , » x x x

A work on Fancy Pheasants and their Allies describing Fifty
Varieties, with Fifteen Illustrations, » » x» x Price 75c.

¥

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