164 



THE OOLOGIST 



in winter. A great many birds may 

 be saved in severe weather by the 

 following simple method and I there- 

 fore describe it at length. 



Several poles are first cut, about 

 five feet long and of convenient 

 diameter. These should be pushed in- 

 to the ground, a foot or so apart, and 

 in a circle, three or four feet in 

 diameter. The tops of the poles are 

 now brought together and firmly 

 bound, so that the whole resembles 

 the frame of a small tepee. Corn 

 stalks are now bound to the frame- 

 work so that it makes a warm hollow 

 shelter, resembling a corn stack. Grain 

 may be placed upon the ground in- 

 side, but a better plan is to build four- 

 sided hollow shutes of bark slabs, 

 with a tray to contain the grain, at 

 one end. The shute may then be 

 pushed through the tepee from the 

 outside. The advantage of this idea 

 is that the grain may be put into the 

 tepee through the shute at any time, 

 without disturbing the birds, who 

 might be snowed in. 



Such shelters may be placed about 

 the borders of fields that are surround- 

 ed by woods and in other places like- 

 ly to be visited by the birds in win- 

 ter. 



The situation usually chosen by the 

 birds for the nest, is in a hay field, 

 often close to a wall or fence. In my 

 experience it has never been com- 

 posed of material, other than dead 

 grasses, beautifully cupped to the 

 contour of the females body. 



The pure white eggs vary in num- 

 ber from ten to seventeen and owing 

 to their conical shape fit closely to- 

 gether, thus allowing the parent to 

 cover so large a number. 



A nest found on July 29th, 1913, at 

 Long Ridge, Conn, containing seven- 

 teen eggs, was placed in a slight hol- 

 low at the foot of a juniper bush In a 

 field of worn out hay. The mower, 



hay-rake and a team of horses in turn 

 passed over the sitting bird without 

 so much as damaging one of her 

 feathers ! 



The slight hollow in which the nest 

 had been built, undoubtedly was the 

 only thing that saved the fearless 

 little bird and her nest. 



Only three of the eggs in this nest 

 hatched. The chicks came forth on 

 the 8th and 9th of August and left 

 the nest on the following day. 



Upon examination in my laboratory, 

 of the remaining eggs, one was found 

 to be addled and the rest either con- 

 tained decomposing, well formed em- 

 bryos, or chicks too weak to break 

 through the shell. 



It is my opinion that the eggs be- 

 came so thoroughly chilled before the 

 bird finally returned to the nest, after 

 being flushed, that the chicks could 

 not survive the shock. 



During my visits to the nest to ob- 

 tain photographs, the male was only 

 observed once, and then at some dis- 

 tance. It is of course possible that 

 this bird had nothing to do with the 

 nest in question at all, but I presume 

 that it was the male. It remained at 

 a distance, occasionally calling. 



The young are beautiful little buff 

 and brown creatures and are very ac- 

 tive, even before the down is entirely 

 dry. Their call note is a weak little 

 "Peep" characteristic of the young of 

 the Gallinaceous birds, and I oc- 

 casionally discovered their where- 

 abouts in a field, after flushing the 

 parent, by listening intently with one 

 ear close to the ground. It is almost 

 impossible to locate them in any other 

 way, except by chance, once they 

 have left the nest. Their coloring is 

 a protection in itself to say nothing 

 of their hiding abilities and minute 

 size. 



It is fascinating to go back day af- 

 ter day to the Quail field and tramp 



