Some American Quails.



Ill



SOME AMERICAN QUAILS.


By M. Pierre Amedee Pichot.


A few years before the war, several species of American Quails

or Partridges, as they are called, though different from the European

birds, were being newly imported by our bird-dealers, particularly at

Bordeaux. Having been one of the first breeders of the Californian

Partridge ( Lophortyx ) when it was introduced into France, I was

very much interested in the new species, and determined to try my

hand at them. In 1896 one M. Deschamps, on his return from the

United States, had brought with him and sold to Gerard, a large

importer of animals, whose firm was situated in the suburbs of

Paris, a lot of six males and five females (Californians) for the round

sum of £112, and from the young bred by Gerard I got my first birds.

Fortunately the new species did not fetch such a high price, and I

secured, for a moderate sum (£2 or £3), the Cuban and Texan Bob

Whites ( Colinus ), the Scaled Partridge (Callipepla squamata), and

the Montezuma, or, as we call them, Massena Quails ( Gyrtonyx ).


These last are the most arresting to the eye on account of the

very singular white and black stripes of their cheeks, which put you

in mind of the fantastic colour patches with which the circus clowns

bedaub their faces. Yet the Massena Quail is far from having the

elegant demeanour of its close cousins. Tucking its head in its

shoulders, it looks as if it were hunch-backed, and the tail coverts

falling over the rump make a ball of its body, giving it the outline

of an Emu. The breast and flanks are of a rich velvety black,

sprinkled with round white dots like those of the Guinea-fowl. The

crown of the head is covered by a rather thick crest of elongated

feathers, falling backwards on the occiput in the style of a chignon.

“ From its gentle disposition and unwillingness to move,” says

Elliot (‘ Game Birds of North America’), “this bird has gained the

sobriquet of ‘ fool quail,’ and in its wild state has often been killed

with a stick in the hands of its pursuer.”


I found the Massenas very tame indeed, and started with

great expectations, but was very unlucky at first. Bird after bird

died ; now the male, then the female, just as I hoped to have fixed

upon a paired couple. They had been located in a large aviary, and



