Quail Pinches. 237 



About the shape and size of a cricket ball, or perhaps a shade 

 larger, it was about a foot from the i^round, about the middle 

 of the bush and very well concealed. It was beautifully woven 

 together and, I should say, waterproof. When a])proachin,g- 

 I't the old birds would always circle around for a few seconds 

 before ali.ghtini;-, as they always did finally, on the top of the 

 bush. There another slight pause took place, and finally a rapid 

 little run down to the nest. This was the procedure invariably 

 adopted, and they always alighted upon exactly the same spot 

 on the bush and always after a sHght pause followed the queer, 

 hurried little zig-zag run down into the nest. The first egg was 

 laid on the 2Tst April, and the clutch of five eggs completed 

 on the 25th inst. Incubation commenced with the laying of the 

 first egg, and both sexes share in the duties of incubation, one 

 relieving the other about every two hours. No attempt at 

 raising a second brood has ever been undertaken by any of my 

 birds. The eggs did not hatch until the 10th June or 19 days 

 later, by which time I had almost made up my mind that they 

 were all duds. The young, four in number, were jet black in 

 colour, sparsely covered with greyish down. All went well 

 uV the 20tn May, when, on making my usual rounds of inspec- 

 tion after tea. I found to my horror that the poor little quail 

 finches had been thrown out of the nest and were lying as thougli 

 dead about two feet away on the ground. I picked up three 

 of them ; the fourth had vanished without trace, but they felt 

 quite cold and appeared to be lifeless except that the blood was 

 still slowly oozing from a nasty wound over the base of the bill 

 rf one of them. This fact encouraged me to hope that there 

 might yet be some slender chance of saving them. I therefore 

 took them inside the house, and after wrapping them in warm 

 cotton wool, held them over a stove. My efforts were soon 

 rewarded, and in a surprisingly short time I had the satisfaction 

 '•f seeing the little things begin to show^ signs of returning to 

 life. I placed them, still wrapped in cotton wool, in a small 

 cardboard box and left them near the stove. In about an hour 

 and a hailf they had completely recovered and began to gape 

 hungrily for food. I noticed that their crops were crammed 

 V'ith millet seed, which was plainly visible, and appeared to 

 contain nothing else. The old birds are fond of mealworms, 

 but none were supplied to this aviary during this period, and 1 



