THE



Bvtcultural ®aga3me t


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



VOL. V. —NO. 49. All rights reserved. NOVEMBER, 1898.



BREEDING OF THE CHINESE PAINTED QUAIL.


Excalfactoria chinensis.


By E. G. B. Meade-Waldo.


The interesting letter of Mr. Seth-Smitli, describing the

nesting of his Chinese Onails, induces me to record the

successful rearing of a bevy of these charming little birds in

one of my aviaries this summer.


The cock bird is a very old one, and has wintered out for

several years (including the bitter winter of 1895), the East

Riding of Yorkshire. The hen was kindly presented to me this

spring, by Mr. Reginald Phillipps. When placed together, the

little birds paired at once : the cock holding any little tit-bit in

his beak, with his head held on one side, uttering a low crooning

sound until the hen ran up and took it from him.


A nest was scratched in the turf, and the first egg laid on

June 12th ; twenty-one eggs were laid by July 3rd, on which day

the hen commenced to sit. As the number of eggs seemed so

disproportionate to the size of the bird, I removed ten, leaving

eleven in the nest. The hen made up the nest by drawing in grass

stems, and the like, but no feathers at all were added, as is the

case with all the true Partridges, Pheasants, etc. The hen sat

exceedingly well, the cock occasionally sitting by her side but

never on the eggs.


On July 23rd the hen came off with seven young ones,

leaving one dead in the nest. These little birds were most

marvellously active and independent, being able to run quite as

fast as the parents on the day of hatching. They were, of

course, very small indeed, but still they looked far too large for

the eggs they had just come out of. They were dark chocolate

in colour, with two broad dull yellow lines down the back, and

three yellow stripes on the head. They fed principally on ants’

eggs—part of an ants’ nest being supplied in a tray twice a-day ;



