N. Taka-Tsukasa—Quail Breeding in Japan



21



and the egg of a properly treated bird is chalky on the surface. Some

people say the egg which is not chalky is not fertile, but this is not

always true, for I have obtained chicks from some which were not

chalky. The eggs can be hatched under a bantam-hen or in an

incubator, which I find answers equally well.


The chicks come out from the eggs in about sixteen or seventeen

days. After leaving the shell they are kept without any food or treat¬

ment by the keeper for about twenty or twenty-four hours. ' The chicks

which are under twenty or twenty-four hours’ old are too weak to be

left alone, though they are very active soon after hatching, and if we

transfer such young birds from the foster-mother to the nursing-box

they will at first run about here and there, seemingly very happy, but

alas ! one by one they become faint and die from exhaustion. Some¬

times they survive the exhaustion, but many such birds have malformed

legs, and are quite unable to stand or walk, owing to imperfect

ossification of the legs.


When the chicks are put in a nursing-box another clutch of eggs

can be placed under the hen. The hen can sit on two consecutive

sittings. The chicks in a nursing-box are fed with the paste mentioned

in the former paragraph, by plastering it on a board which leans

diagonally against the wall of the box. The one thing the breeder should

always bear in mind is that the paste often adheres to the chick’s bill

and covers the nostrils and eyes. This often blinds or suffocates the

birds. Hence the breeder must watch them, and if he finds the paste

sticking to the bill he must remove it without delay. If the paste on

the bill hardens it can be removed with ease by cleaning the bill with

a piece of wet cloth. The nursing-box, in size 1 foot by 2\ feet, is

partitioned into two chambers by a screen, one chamber measuring

2 feet, and the other 6 inches. The latter, heated by a lamp or other

apparatus such as is used in a vivarium, is the bedroom for the chicks,

which when put in the box can already run about easily, and soon find

their food and learn how to eat. I find it better at first to put the food

board at a distance of about two-thirds of the length of the large

chamber from the screen, and to draw it further away as the chicks

grow, and to have the paste at first very moist, then by degrees to get

it drier, until the ordinary consistency is reached.



