CHAP.X.J DIET. 387 



though, were more frequent success a point of any im- 

 portance, I do not think it impossible to attain it, by 

 allowing a pair of birds to have a large aviary to them- 

 selves, with a portion screened off so as to allow them 

 to retire to complete seclusion, and provided with earth, 

 turf, and growing corn, in imitation of their natural 

 haunts. The male had better be removed as soon as 

 the female is seen to be scratching out a nest*. The 

 hen with her tiny brood would be exceedingly pretty 

 and interesting objects could their wildness be conquered. 

 Temminck states the time of incubation to be three 

 weeks, and that the chicks run as soon as hatched. 



Quails do not seem to care for green food, either in 

 the shape of unripe seeds, buds, or leaves, like many 

 other gallinaceous birds, but feed on ripe seeds, worms, 

 and insects. They drink frequently, and do not shell 

 their seeds like linnets and canaries, but swallow them 

 whole like Poultry. Our birds always have two small 

 turfs in their cage, one with the grass upwards, the 

 other reversed : the first attracts but little of their 

 attention, the latter is soon torn to pieces by their 

 search after grubs and their endeavours to dust them- 

 selves in the mould. They are very apt to become epi- 



ally given to them. They delighted to hide themselves Tinder 

 boughs which had been placed for them in the mew. They are fond 

 of busking and rubbing their feathers in the sand, and seemed much 

 to enjoy fresh turf when given to them in their habitation. The 

 pair of old Quails were tolerably tame when first placed in the mew. 

 The two young hens laid thirteen eggs this summer ('50), but did 

 not sit. 



* " The nest is made by the female, but, like the Partridges, the 

 eggs are deposited almost on the bare ground ; these also, unlike the 

 uniform tint which we find prevailing in those of the true Partridges, 

 are deeply blotched with oil-green, and, except in form, are somewhat 

 similar to those of the Snipe." Sir W. Jardine, Game Birds, p. 96, 



C C 2 



