54 
THE AMERICAN QUAIL. 
(OrTYX VIRGINIANA.) 
Rejected from the B.O.U. List. 
Rejected by H. Saunders. 
Rejected by Seebohm. 
The bird having been introduced, and bred, has yet not 
held its ground. 
In my Aviary I did not succeed in getting eggs from 
the birds, until I had inserted a flower-pot over the hol- 
lowed-out nest made in the sand, and lined with a few 
feathers. The eggs are white, as are also those of the 
Florida, and the Texan Quails, plain eggs are produced 
also by the Mountain Quail, ‘Picta, of a warm cream 
tint; and the Oregon Ruffed-Grouse, of a dark cream 
colour. The'clutch of Virginiana reaches 25 eggs. 
In confinement I have known the Californian Quail 
lay 300 eggs in a season; and survive it. I have reared 
several broods under small bantams very successfully ; 
and a more exquisite sight I never beheld than to see 
eighteen of them about the size of walnuts gathering 
round a large strawberry. One year I confined the Cali- 
fornian pair in an out-house; having set as many clutches 
as I could get bantams to cover; and the cock made a 
nest in the corner among some straw, in which the hen 
having furnished it with a few eggs, he immediately be- 
gan to sit, but the hen continued to lay so perseveringly 
that the eggs overflowed the nest on all sides, and he had 
to resign. 
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