QUAIL PROPAGATION METHODS 45 



for single ones. A heap of brush should stand near each 

 coop. In the areas between lines of coops some shade crop 

 can be planted, such as corn or sunflowers, or else oats, 

 buckwheat, or vetch, or a mixture of these. The latter 

 makes fine shade in late summer, and the birds are very fond 

 of the seeds when matured in the fall. 



Avoid Crowding. At the present stage of the experimen- 

 tal work with quails we are not yet sure how large a number 

 can safely be reared in one field. Myself and others have 

 demonstrated that a few hundred can be raised successfully 

 on the free-range plan, and where we err on the side of abun- 

 dance of room. In a five or six acre enclosure at the Clove 

 Valley Club I saw two thousand young pheasants raised 

 without danger. But quails would certainly not stand any- 

 thing like that amount of herding. We do not yet know 

 how far we can go with numbers and crowding, and this is to 

 be worked out. Till this is done, it is well to be cautious 

 with the rearing-field system, using, preferably, fields of 

 moderate size and more of them. For the present, I should 

 not try to keep more than half a dozen broods in a field of 

 half an acre. For other broods it will be safer to scatter the 

 coops in the open about the estate, preserve, or farm, as 

 above. 



Quail Social. Fortunately the quail is a very social bird 

 and the young are quite easily managed, owing to their at- 

 tachment to each other and to their foster-mother. Some- 

 times, if the hen is not taken away, they will run with 

 her till late fall or even through the winter. I have laughed 

 to see a bevy of fully matured quails in winter obediently fol- 

 lowing a little yellow bantam. Mr. Rogers considers that the 

 last crisis is past with quails when the neck feathers, which 

 are the last to mature, are fully grown out. This is when 

 they are from eight to ten weeks of age. Beyond this period, 



