VALLEY QUAIL 



529 



this j)henomeiioii. A fact well known to poultry breeders is that 

 quantity and quality of food have a direct effect on egg production 

 and fertility. It is thus not to be wondered at that years of drouth 

 and hence of scanty food supply result in diminishment of the quail 

 crop — not that the quail are able to foresee a shortage of food, but 

 that their bodies have at the beginning of the season of nesting 

 already begun to respond to the unfavorable conditions. 



Sportsmen have not infrequently stated that quail rear two broods 

 in a season, and of course there is plenty of time between April and 

 September for any one pair of birds to rear two, or even three 



broods; but we have been 

 unable to find any proof 

 of this. In the accompany- 

 ing diagram (fig. 84) we 

 have made use of all the 

 pertinent facts contained 

 in tables 15 and 16, group- 

 ing the breeding dates by 

 half-monthly periods. 

 There will be seen to be 

 two times of maximum 

 egg-laying, one beginning 

 in the first half of May, 

 and the other in the first 

 half of June. However, 

 tliere are so many compli- 

 cating factors, such as the 

 destruction of first nests, 

 that but little significance can be attached to the double peak of 

 this diagram as indicating tw'o nestings in a season. 



The time of incubation is from twenty-one to twenty-three days. 

 The male bird will assume the duties of incubation if the female is 

 made away wath, but otherwise seems only to perform the duty of 

 sentinel. The young quail are able to run about so soon after hatch- 

 ing that it has been said metaphorically that they "run away with 

 part of the shell clinging to their backs." At the State Game Farm 

 newly hatched young have been seen racing about and over eggs in 

 the incubator within fifteen minutes after emerging from the shell. 

 In the wild, when danger threatens the brood, a few notes of warning 

 from one of the parents suffice to cause the young to hide in any 

 available depression or shelter which is handy. Once so sheltered, 

 their habit of keeping quiet, or "freezing," together with their effec- 

 tively concealing coloration, makes it almost impossible to rediscover 

 them. About ten days is said to elapse after hatching before the 



Fig. 84. Curve showing by half-month 

 periods the time when Valley Quail begin to 

 lay their eggs. Calculated from data in 

 tables 15 and 16 by taking account of the 

 number of eggs in the nests when found, 

 their condition as to incubation, and reckon- 

 ing back to find the dates on which the sets 

 were probably commenced. The numbers in 

 the columns indicate the number of calcu- 

 lations falling within each half monthly 

 interval. 



