62 



THE NATl'RE-STVDY REVIEW 



l<i:3 -Mar.. 1910 



BOBWHITE COCK 



This bird brooded a nest of lfi eggs, bringing off 15 chicks. He had been reared 

 in domestication the year before. 



with due warning to all concerned, no cat was permitted to 

 leave the place alive. Not a bird could have been reared, had 

 not these measures been taken; and the one and only enemy 

 that has caused great loss and intolerable misery throughout 

 the whole work has been the uncontrolled cat. 



Follow with me just one actual story for part of a season. 

 The cock shown in the picture with the young is brooding 

 his nest of 16 eggs. He is in a wire-covered yard forty feet 

 square, including the bases of two large spruce trees. The 

 period of incubation is 24 days. All goes well for the first two 

 weeks; then the dog, obtained to keep the cats away, deserts 

 to a former home. Four times during the last ten days the 

 bobwhite is frightened off his nest by cats climbing about over 

 the wires. Each time the eggs are quickly taken from the nest 

 and placed under a bantam hen kept brooding for the express 

 purpose. Plaster of Paris eggs are put into his nest, the yard is 

 hunted over tuft by tuft with a lantern, he is found and put back 

 on his nest. While he is off to feed next day, his own eggs are 

 put back. He finally brings off 15 fine, healthy chicks, his 



