Practical Bird-Keeping. — X. Quails.



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dicula asiatica), and some of the American Ouails, amongst

which is the commonest and most beautiful of all as an aviary

bird, the Californian Ouail.


All of the foregoing are hardy, and easily kept on a simple

diet of seed and green food, and most of them are not particularly

quarrelsome. I should not be disposed, however, to keep either

Bush Quails or Californian Quails with other species of the

smaller ground birds, though I have not found any of the others

to be particularly aggressive if kept in a large enough enclosure.

The only difficulty in keeping more than one species of the same

genus, say of Coturnix in the same aviary is that cross-breeding

may occur, if say a pair of the Indian Rain Quails and a pair

of African Harlequins are kept together.


Quails commence pairing about April, but do not, as a

rule, go to nest until the grass is well grown. Then the cock is

very busy, uttering his shrill call-note and selecting sites for the

nest which he tries to persuade his mate to adopt. The site

finally selected is generally under a tuft of coarse grass which

is cleverly concealed by the blades being drawn down to form a

dome. The number of eggs to a clutch varies with the species,

but six or seven is the usual number for the smaller species,

while the Californian Quail often lays considerably more. In¬

cubation is performed by the female only, and occupies from

sixteen to twenty days according to the species. Young Quails

when first hatched are extremely beautiful little things, resem¬

bling miniature partridge chicks. They remain in the nest with

the mother for about the first twenty-four hours, after which

they follow her away into the grass.


This is a critical time for the chicks, for should there be

any weakly ones they may be left behind, when they soon perish.


A plan adopted by the writer some years ago for rearing

young Quails proved very successful. A run, about six feet long

by four feet wide and twelve inches high was made, the sides

close boarded, but the top of wire netting, one end was hinged at

the top so as to allow of the Quail and her brood being driven in.

Part of the top was made to open for feeding. Teafy branches

were placed over part of this run, and a sheet of corrugated iron



