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Mr. W. Shore Baily,



THE BREEDING OF THE MEXICAN BLACK¬

BREASTED QUAIL (C. pectoratis).


By W. Shore Baily.


As not very much has appeared in the Magazine of recent

years with regard to any of the Quail family, I thought that the

following account of the breeding of the Mexican Black-breasted

Quail in my aviaries this season would be of interest. I purchased

two pairs of these handsome birds from Focklemann in 1913, and on

their arrival found them to very closely resemble their North American

cousin, the popular “ Bob White ” (C. virginianus). The male differs

in having a larger area of the breast black; to an ordinary observer

the hens are indistinguishable. The same remark applies to the

other females in the group, which, according to Ridgway, consists of

nine species. I haven’t the least doubt but that any of these would

interbreed, and that fertile hybrids would result. I hope next year

to try one of my young ones with a Cuban cock (C. cubanensis). For

the first three years that I had them they were kept in rather small

aviaries, and although several nests were built no eggs were laid.

Last year I turned a pair into a large grass aviary. Towards the end

of July the hen disappeared, and I concluded that she was incubating.

Our hunt for the nest proved unsuccessful, and as she had not shown

up by the end of August I naturally thought that she must have

died, which subsequently was proved to be the case. The first week

in September the cock also vanished. This would be quite six weeks

after the hen had last been seen, and thinking that he also was dead

my interest in Quails was reduced to a minimum. However, on

entering the aviary one morning some three weeks later, I was

astonished to see him sunning himself on a heap of brushwood. In

the evening he was again missing, which pointed to the fact that he

was sitting somewhere upon a clutch of eggs. The next morning I

and my aviaryman had a thorough search for the nest, and just as

we were giving it up in despair the bird got up at our feet from a

nest containing eight eggs. I thought at the time that this was a

very singular occurrence, for, although I had known Californian and

Squamata males to take charge of their young ones, I had never



