44 THE QUAIL. 



well. Thus do these innocent birds escape by means 

 of the instinctive sagacity with which the Creator has 

 kindly endowed them. 



Young Quails when hatched under a hen, soon learn 

 the call of their adopted mother, and though more apt 

 to stray away and get lost than other chickens, still 

 they often, for the first season, become so tame as to 

 run for their food with the others, when called. But 

 however tame they may become during the first win- 

 ter, they uniformly make their escape in the spring, 

 and never return. Mr. Wilson gives an account of 

 two of these birds, which were hatched under a hen, 

 and which when weaned by her, associated with the 

 cows. They regularly followed these animals to the 

 pasture, in the morning, and returned with them at 

 evening, and always staid by, while they were milked. 

 In the winter they took up their residence in the sta- 

 ble with the cows, but as soon as spring appeared, they 

 flew away, and were not seen afterwards. 



Common chickens, when hatched by a Quail, will 

 partake of her manners and habits ; the effect being 

 just the contrary of that produced by hatching the 

 Quail under a hen. 



Mr. Wilson tells us that a friend of his made an ex- 

 periment by putting some hens' eggs under a Quail 

 while she was sitting, first taking away her eggs, when 

 she was absent. She hatched them all, and for sever- 

 al weeks afterwards he often saw the brood, and ob- 

 served the conduct, both of the chickens, and their 

 mother-in-law. The old Quail on such occasions be- 

 haved in the usual manner, pretending to be wounded, 

 and tumbling along on the ground. But it was par- 



