È 
196 Mr. Peabody on the 
borrowing warmth from each other; but in our 
fiercest winter storms they sometimes perish under 
the drifted snow. 
The quail is a gentle bird, and fond of associating 
with its own race, though not in large numbers. It 
generally resorts to open fields in search of food, 
such as grain, buck wheat and Indian corn. It 
sometimes joins the parties of domestic fowls, and 
scratches the ground after their example. Though 
it is fond of grain, it requires something more for 
its support ; and the demand of the young quails for 
insects makes the chief difficulty in the way of its 
domestication. The female prepares a nest of vari- 
ous grasses, arranged in an oven-like form, under the 
protection of a tuft, and partly sunk in the ground. 
The eggs are from ten to eighteen, of a pure white 
The male takes part in sitting, and as soon as the 
young are hatched, they are able to leave the nest. 
Wilson believed that the quail might be domesti- 
cated. Its eggs have sometimes been hatched by the 
common hen, and the chickens are sufficiently tame ; 
but though kept through the season and the suc- 
ceeding winter, they go away in the spring. Two 
that were brought up by a hen, as soon as they Were 
turned off, associated with the cows, going with 
them to the pasture in the morning, returning at 
night, and standing by them when they were milked, 
waiting to share their lodgings in the barn. These, 
however, contented as they appeared, deserted, like 
all the rest, in the spring. This wildness might, 
after a time, be overcome; but there would be 
more difficulty in supplying all the food they require; 
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