PAIRING AND NESTING. 65 



first low but increasing in loudness until they were heard 

 through the whole neighborhood. Their notes were pre- 

 cisely like those of the wild birds. As the spring advanced 

 the males became very pugnacious, and continued contests 

 took place among themselves, as well as with the pigeons 

 and the poultry that intruded on their premises. Their 

 eggs were placed under a hen and hatched out. The ex- 

 periment went no further, but was quite sufficient to de- 

 monstrate the possibility of their domestication. 



Baird, Brewer and Eidgway further add, that Wilson re- 

 lates that in one instance a female of this species set upon 

 and hatched out the eggs of the common hen. For sev- 

 eral weeks after, his informant occasionally surprised her 

 in various parts of the plantation with her brood of chick- 

 ens, on which occasion she exhibited every indication of 

 distress and alarm ; and practiced her usual manoeuvres 

 for their preservation. She continued to lead them about 

 until they were larger than herself, and their manners had 

 all the shyness, timidity, and alarm of young Quails. 



