544 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



with a single pair kept as pets in the house. The hen 

 laid 1 8 eggs in a nest made by the pair in a window 

 cage, but since the birds did not seem inclined to in- 

 cubate, the eggs were placed under a bantam hen. Of 

 the 13 eggs first laid 6 hatched, but the chicks being 

 left with the hen all died within ten days. Of the 

 remaining 5, 3 hatched under a second hen and to 

 these 5 eggs were added n obtained from the State 

 Hatchery. Ten chicks were obtained from the 16 

 eggs. Of these, 3 died by accident and showed nc 

 trace of the disease of liver and caeca which has proved 

 fatal to so many of our young game birds as it has to 

 turkeys. The remaining 7 birds did well from Sep- 

 tember to the date of this report, November, 1907. 

 Eleven quail chicks just out of the incubator were 

 obtained August iQth from the State Farm, were 

 reared in a brooder and to date are alive and well. 



One of the great difficulties attending these efforts 

 to rear native game birds has been the persistent attacks 

 of vermin, and this Professor Hodge was able to wholly 

 guard against during the summer of 1907. Rats were 

 troublesome, a skunk killed a hen quail, and a multi- 

 tude of skunks were about. Traps were kept con- 

 stantly set and the results were surprising for it must 

 be remembered that Professor Hodge lives in the large 

 city of Worcester. These traps caught 17 skunks and 

 a great number of rats, and all these before any dam- 

 age had been done by the animals. Professor Hodge 

 is carrying on this interesting experimental work 

 purely as a labor of love, though in 1909 a grant of 



