loiiifcr tliut time. I went on after tlic horses and retiiriietl to visit her the 

 next evening and met with great snccess for this time she allowed me to 

 approach in the same manner as before and stroke her feathers gently 

 vvitli my forefinger while she kept lier place on the nest. After this I 

 visited her nearly every evening and we became so well acquainted that 

 slie would eat bits of apple, cake, sugar and other dainties from the end of 

 my forefinger and allow me to gently place my linger beneath her and 

 raise her from the nest, at which she showed no signs of fright but 

 seemed extremely anxious to get back on her eggs. This little bird was a 

 most careful •' nest-wife" for after each meal taken from my hand she 

 would poise iierself on tiie edge of the nest and carefully pick out all the 

 crumbs which had fallen into it. Siie and and her family left for better 

 feeding grctunds and I liave seen nothing of 'her since. I think her 

 extraordinary tameness can easily be explained by her great love for her 

 eggs and nest which at lirst led her to allow 7ne to touch her. and after a 

 few days of this forced endurance she found that she need have no fear 

 of me and became actually tame. 



On the 20th day of September, while nutting 1 f(<iind a quaiFs nest 

 containing the shells of eh-ven eggs from wliich tiie young quails seemed 

 to have just hatched. Tliese shells were opened at th(> larger end by a 

 ragged cut. the edges of wiiicli were turned in and which would have been 

 a complete circle had not a hinge of about a quarter of an incn's width 

 been left on one side, the toueh inside skin acting as a hinge. These 

 openings looked very much as though the mother quail had made them, 

 and to add to this evidence was another egg still containing a young quail 

 and it was opened as were the others, and on examination I found tiiat 

 the young quail's bill was packed tightly in the shell a little below the 

 cut. which showed that the y^ung qnail hadn't opened it as is the belief 

 of many naturalists. But against this evidence there was still another 

 egg in the nest whicli contained a dead bird and it 7o.is not opened as were 

 the r(!st. The only excuse I can make for this is that the old quail not 

 iiearing any chirp from that egg thought it did not \n'i^^\ to be opened 

 yet. 



ARE YOU WATCHING THE BIRDS. 



Tiiroiigli tiie coiii'tesy of Dr. ( . Ilai't Merriani. I'liief of the Itioiogical 

 Survey. Washington. 1). ('.. migration blanks with return penalty envel- 

 opes were mailed to ev<'i-y nu'inl)er of the Iowa Ornithological Association. 

 It is desired that these blanks will he tilled out with our migration notes 

 aiul sent to Dr. C. Hart Merriam. Wasiiington. I). ('. A duplicate of our 

 migration notes is to be mailed to Carl Fitz llenning. Ciiief of tiie Migra- 

 tion Department. Boone. Iowa. 



It is to be iioped that every meml)er of our association will take enougii 

 interest in this branch of our ornithological studies to enable us to nuike 

 a creditable r(;port on the migration of i)irds in the State of Iowa. Mi- 

 gration notes fi'om memi)ers of the association living outside of our state 

 are (l<^sii-ed. Let (>very one nuikc a full and conqilete I'eport. 



