150 



THE OOLOGIST. 



THEOOLOGIST 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED MONTHLY 



BY 



FRANK H. LATTIN, - ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 student of Birds, tlieir Nests and Eggs, solicited 

 from all. 



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Albion, Orleans Co., N. Y. 



Entered at the Post Office at Albion, N. Y., as 

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Can Q,uails be Domesticated. 



Some one asks through tlic Oologist 

 if the Bob-white or Quail can be domest- 

 icated. I will tell you an iueident that 

 eaiue under my own observation. 

 When I Avas quite small my j^arents 

 moved into the country, thinking the 

 free life of a rural hoiiie would be much 

 healthier for growing children than to 

 keep them housed up in town in a sea 

 of smoke and bricks and mortar. And 

 so it proved to be. 



Th(!re wi're vei-y few (Quails on the 

 place Avhen we moved tliciT, they lia\ - 

 ing been killed otV by Imiiters from a 

 town close by. 



Afti'r father to()k i)osse.ssion he would 



not kill the Quails nor permit others to 



. do so; consequentlj' it Avas not long 



until the birds of all kinds began to 

 know A\here they Avert' welcome aiul 

 where they would be protected The 

 Quails each year became more i)lenti- 

 ful and not so Avild, until one pair more 

 trusting than th(! rest, came into the 

 garden and made their nest in a Ijcd of 

 onions only a fcAV yards from the house. 

 They grew so tame Ave could part the 

 onions and look in upon their quiet 

 home Avithout the old one leaving her 

 nest. After the young Avere hatched 

 they remained abmit the gaiden imtil 

 Avinter set in, Avheii they Avent to the 

 Avoods for shelter, returning occasion- 

 ally, each time Avith tlieir numbers 

 diminished. 



When spring came the old ones came 

 back and took up their abode in the 

 gai'den again, this time making their 

 nest under the projecting end of a rail 

 but a fcAV feet fi-om Avhert^ they had 

 built the year before. When the fe- 

 male had been sitting about ten days 

 Ave Aveiit out one morning to find her 

 torn from her nest and devoured, ])re- 

 sumably Ijy some proAvling old cat. 

 This, Ave thought, Avould scai'e our 

 friends aAvay, but the remaining bird 

 mourned his loss for two or three days, 

 then took possession of the nest, and, 

 to our great surprise, hatched e\-ery 

 egg. They scarcely Avent outside of 

 the garden until they had tlieir growth. 

 They took great delight in getting into 

 some hotbeds in the garden to dust 

 their feathers, often causing satl havoc 

 among the young plants. If tln-y had 

 turned e\ery hot-ijed in ChristemUnu 

 topsy-turvey, it Avould not have loAvei'ed 

 them any in our estimation for they 

 seemed almost a part of our family. 

 We never tried to house them, but for 

 scA'ei'al yeai's would plant a ])alch of 

 pop-corn in the garden for them to sta^' 

 in, and to have a })lace to feed tliem. 

 We fed them ])rinei])ally on sorguni 

 seed, gathered in the fall anil stored 

 aAvay for tlieir especial i)enetit. They 

 kncAV as well as a Hock f)f chickens, 



