QUAIL PROPAGATION METHODS 17 



commonly to carry germs of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and 

 the like, which are unable to overwhelm the system so long 

 as it remains normally resistant. 



Are Wild Quails Ever Infected. The fear is often ex- 

 pressed that the quail disease, started from imported birds 

 or from those having the disease on game-preserves, might 

 spread among the wild native quails. Of this I do not be- 

 lieve there is any likelihood. That the disease spreads 

 among birds in captivity is amply proven by the Massachu- 

 setts experiments. I had a case at Storrs, Connecticut, where 

 ^t invaded from one pen to another and swept off every mem- 

 ber of a brood, parents as well as young, of what appeared 

 to be absolutely healthy and vigorous birds. In another 

 case, on a private preserve, it seemed that the ground where 

 there had been disease for several seasons had become so 

 thoroughly infected as to communicate the disease to birds 

 confined upon it even after a lapse of a year or two. I am 

 aware, however, of no evidence to indicate that wild birds 

 ranging over even such ground are in any danger. At Storrs, 

 Connecticut, where there was a bad epidemic among the 

 propagated young quails kept on a certain tract of pasture, 

 the wild quails have continued abundant upon that ground 

 and in the vicinity year after year. 



Sometimes Recover in Freedom. Furthermore, infected 

 birds, when the disease has not progressed too far, some- 

 times recover when liberated. A shipment of quails was re- 

 ceived by the Game Breeders' Association, on Long Island, 

 New York, and put by the keeper in an old hen-house, which 

 happens to be one of the surest ways of starting the disease. 

 As a matter of course the epidemic broke out. After about 

 half the birds had died the rest were liberated. Most of 

 them seemed to recover, for the species suddenly became 

 abundant in the vicinity and raised broods, and the next 



