32 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



the wire must be as fine as §-inch mesh. There should be a 

 door on top by which to reach in easily. There need be no 

 other door, as the run can be removed when hen and chicks 

 are let out. 



Egg-production. Quails are naturally late breeders. 

 They seldom begin laying before the middle of May, and 

 often not till the first or second week of June. Sometimes 

 it drags along till even July. This extreme delay is probably 

 due to artificial conditions, and is unfortunate, because it 

 brings the young along so late that they are likely to suc- 

 cumb to autumn storms and frosts. Stimulating food is one 

 factor to hasten matters. Another is quiet and absence of 

 excitement. The birds when caught and distributed among 

 the breeding-pens should be handled carefully. They should 

 have abundance of cover in the pens, and should not be mo- 

 lested or frightened. All approach should be quietly and 

 with caution, and strangers should be kept away. 



Nesting and Lajring. A few days before any eggs are laid 

 a simple nest is formed, a mere hollow lined with grass or 

 leaves, beneath the brush-pile or tunnelled in under thick 

 grass. The eggs are white and pointed. They are laid on 

 successive or alternate days, averaging about five a week. 

 Quails should average from thirty-five to fifty eggs in a 

 season, if allowed to lay as late as they will. Ordinarily a 

 hen will lay her normal complement continuously, stop for a 

 week or two, and start in again, producing perhaps three 

 litters. These are so irregular in number that it is often 

 hard to tell what a litter really is. One quail that I had laid 

 thirty-five eggs in forty days in one nest, which laying may 

 have been stimulated by my removing the eggs. Most 

 clutches are from nine to fifteen or eighteen eggs. If the 

 eggs are not taken, the bird ordinarily finishes her clutch, 

 deserts it, builds another nest, and presently begins to lay 



