QUAIL PROPAGATION METHODS 29 



that a bird could be seen, which is exactly what they prefer. 

 Strangers were kept away, and as little disturbance was 

 made as possible. At intervals the eggs must be hunted out, 

 but they are so skilfully concealed that it is hard to find them 

 all when cover is really thick. In many cases the birds, as 

 elsewhere stated, fail to incubate their own eggs, and such 

 eggs, overlooked, will spoil. It complicates matters also to 

 have the young hatch in the enclosure. 



Single Pairs. The way which has thus far proved most 

 successful is to separate the bob-whites into pairs, and put 

 each pair by itself in a small pen during the laying season. 

 With few exceptions any male and female will mate, and 

 nearly always they produce fertile eggs in abundance if 

 properly fed and handled. 



Breeding-pens. Experience shows that a little movable 

 pen 4 by 8 feet is of sufficient size for one pair of quails for 

 the breeding season. This consists of a simple, rectangular 

 frame covered with wire above and on the sides. The wire 

 for the sides should be f-inch mesh. Around the bottom of 

 the frame should be a baseboard a foot high, to the inner 

 edge of which the wire of the sides and ends should be tacked. 

 This is in case the quails should hatch a brood themselves 

 or if it should be used for a brood of small young with the 

 bantam. At first the young can get through f-inch mesh. 

 The baseboard keeps them in till they have grown too large 

 to get through the wire. Tacking the wire, however, to the 

 outer edge of the board leaves a ledge upon which even small 

 chicks can scramble and secure leverage to squeeze through. 

 The board, moreover, shuts off the view from the outside 

 and makes the adults more contented with the small quar- 

 ters. For the top of the frame i-inch mesh will do, which 

 is just small enough to keep out English sparrows. At each 

 end there should be a door, one large enough for a man to 



