96 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



about mating, and must select their own partners. Arbi- 

 trary mating cannot be arranged, as with quails. 



Nesting in Large Pen. One way to manage is to put out 

 a number in a good large enclosure, preferably of an acre or 

 more, and hardly less than half an acre, and let them mate 

 and nest there. One trouble, however, is that the males 

 are terrible fighters, and another is that the sexes are hard 

 to tell apart. Generally the males are the more reddish 

 brown in their markings, but I have found that this does 

 not always hold, for some males, perhaps younger ones, 

 lacked the reddish markings. Another sign, only discerni- 

 ble by catching the birds, is that the males generally have the 

 under side of the wing nearly white and only faintly barred 

 with gray, while with the female it is more heavily barred. 

 Some cases, though, are indecisive. The size of the brown 

 patch on the abdomen is not a distinguishing character. 

 So one is apt to get in more males than females, and then 

 there is no peace. 



French System. The approved way of dodging the diffi- 

 culties is the French system. In this there is a central field 

 as above. Around it are built smaller pens, each of moder- 

 ate size, say 15 feet square, having a door or slide connected 

 with the field. In this field place a number of birds, at least 

 enough for a pair for each side pen, or more. Amid great 

 fighting the matings are made, and the mated pairs withdraw 

 into the smaller pens. There they can be shut in to breed, 

 or be caught and removed to other quarters, to make room 

 for others. The young can be hatched and reared with 

 bantams. They are fully as easy as pheasants to raise, and 

 are quite docile, unlike the parents. The latter, however, 

 unlike the quail, will usually rear their own young. Some 

 breeders allow them to do this, as they do not usually lay 

 a second clutch in a small enclosure, though sometimes they 



