OTHER FOREIGN GALLINACEOUS SPECIES 95 



est method is to take them afield, pull off the cover of the 

 crate, and see them whir off, like a shot from a cannon. The 

 chances are that they will never find one another and never 

 return to the desired location. 



An Instance. Here is a method I once tried with a con- 

 signment of gray partridges : For about ten days they were 

 kept in a covered wire enclosure, in a retired place at the 

 edge of a suitable huckleberry pasture, bordering the woods. 

 They had plenty of grass and bushes, and of f oon and water. 

 One night, after feeding, I left the gate open, having scat- 

 tered grain outside. Next morning only a few had gone out, 

 and these were in the bushes close by. The others had not 

 cared to leave. They would walk to the gate, look out, and 

 go back. Finally I had to urge them gently from a distance, 

 till they stepped out and trotted to the bushes to join their 

 friends. They remained nearby and came back to the pen 

 regularly to feed. A field of buckwheat was planted near, 

 and the grain left to stand for their use in winter. Most of 

 them remained in the vicinity, and three nests, with from 

 fifteen to twenty eggs in each, were found in that same pas- 

 ture the next summer. 



Difficult to Breed. Though easy to keep in confinement, 

 the gray partridge is a difficult species to breed under re- 

 straint. They are wild and restless by nature, and usually 

 do not tame at all. Even if kept for years in an enclosure, 

 they often remain as wild as ever. Whenever any one ap- 

 proaches, instead of hiding like the quail, they race about 

 or flutter, uttering their raucous cackle. " Fool birds " is a 

 term I have heard applied by many an observer. They have , 

 however, the virtue of not being very susceptible to the 

 enteric epidemics. 



Hard to Mate. It is almost hopeless to expect them to 

 breed in a small yard or enclosure. They are very finicky 



