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addled them, knowing that it was impossible to get live insect food enough 

 to bring them up at that time of the year. 



Three seems to be the complement of eggs, but as there were two 

 hens, both of them may have been laving. 



In the slip aviary I had three Pkkin NighTingai.es and a pair of 

 Cotin tiix pectoralis, none of them made any attempt to nest. 



Chinese Painted Quaii, {Excaljactoria chinensis). On July ist, 

 1903, a pair of these delightful little birds arrived, they were aviary bred and 

 quite tame. They did not waste any time, for on July the 8th I discovered 

 three eggs laid in a slight hollow between a thin tuft of sedge and some 

 coarse grass. By the 13th the grass had grown taller, nearly hiding the 

 eggs, but I could see five eggs, and there was another laid some way off,, 

 which I took for a specimen. 



On the 23rd the grass had grown over and the nest was completely 

 hidden. I had not seen the hen for nearly a week, but cannot tell when 

 incubation began, presumably on the 13th with the eighth egg, that is, sup- 

 posing an egg was laid every day, as on August the 5th she brought out six 

 chicks and left one addled egg behind. 



The young were very dark brown above, looking quite black, with raw 

 sienna coloured beaks and legs ; the under parts were lighter. They were 

 very active and tame, one came running up and caught a piece of yolk of 

 egg which I was throwing to them. 



I fed them on maw seed, Indian millet and cut up mealworms, which 

 caused I feel sure the terrible tragedies which followed, and also the change 

 of diet which saved the lives of the remaining two, which reached maturity 

 safely, and turned out to be two hens. 



On Aug. 6th one chick was drowned in the drinking dish in 75 in. of 

 water, for this I substituted six penny glass bowls.* On the 8th another 

 died, it seemed to be very weak on the evening before. On the nth a third 

 young died ; I found its crop full of white and Indian millet and maw seed, 

 its intestines seemed inflamed in places so I stopped the maw seed, white 

 millet and mealworms, giving them living ant pupae and Indian millet 

 alone. It was hard work collecting the pupae, because most of the larger 

 ones, (the Queens I suppose), had emerged, and the little Quails were afraid 

 of the ants ; these had to be picked out first, and the amount I had taken an 

 hour to collect was eaten in about five minutes. Besides that a Green 

 Woodpeeker observing that I was making his work easier for him, flew 

 down to the ants' nests as soon as I was at a safe distance and finished off 

 all that was left. 



The chick which died on the nth showed the scapularies, primaries, 

 secondaries, tail, first and second upper and first wing coverts developing. 



On the 14th a fourth young one died during the morning, it was a 

 very wet day. This bird looked healthy and was very nearly fledged. 



* Photographic developing dishes (shallow) make excellent water dishes for outdoor 



aviaries. 



