32 On the genus Cotumix.


then carefully and gently driven towards this run, and when

once in they may be considered perfectly safe from harm and

quite easy to rear. In fact I cannot remember ever losing a

young bird when once I had them safely confined thus. There

is no fear of them being disturbed or robbed of their food by

other birds, and there is no chance of their wandering from their

mother or she from them and their not being able to get to one

another again.


There is nothing better for young quails than living ants'

cocoons, and the aviculturist who lives right in the country,

where he can procure and supply his birds with an ants' nest a

day is much to be envied by his less fortunate brethren. When

possible I procure ants' nests for my young quails, filling large

biscuit-tins with them, earth and all, and tip a little of this

mixture of earth, ants, and their cocoons, into the run twice a

day. Besides this they are regularly fed twice a day with soft

food consisting of finely - powdered hard - boiled egg, bread -

crumbs, preserved ants' cocoons and fine crissel, the last two

ingredients having been previously soaked. The young quails

may be reared on the soft food and seed alone, but they should

certainly have living animal food if this can be procured,

especially after the first four or five days, when the growth of

their feathers is very rapid. I have found small gentles most

useful when ants' cocoons were unprocurable, but it is most

essential that these should have been kept for two or three days

at least in dry sand before being given to the birds in order that

they may be thoroughly clean. After the first week I add green

food to the soft -food mixture in the form of finely - chopped

chickweed or young grass.


Of course seed must be supplied for the mother, and the

young birds will partake of this after the first week if not before.

Fine Indian millet is very useful for young quails, and they will

eat a good deal of this after the first week of their existauce.


When a fortnight old the brood may be let out with their

mother into the aviary again, but if there are other quails nest-

ing there, or it is desired that the mother of the chicks should

have a second brood, it is best to wait until the young birds are

three weeks old and then let the mother go back into the en-



