AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



233 



seven. This vicious propensity I can only account for by 

 the circumstance, tliat the servants were in the liabit of care- 

 lessly throwing dead chickens into the yard, which had 

 given the poultry a taste for meat. Be this as it may, I was 

 mortified in seeing one half of the brood thus greedily 

 swallowed by their unnatural stepmother. The seven that 

 remained were removed from the hen till the next morning, 

 when they were put into a box, five feet by two, and the 

 hen ones more placed near them. She from that moment 

 seemed to regard them as her own, and evinced extreme 

 affection for them. The box was railed across the top, and 

 divided into two apartments by rails within ; so that, if 

 any delicacies were given to the young, the hen could not 

 reach them. They were fed on alum-curds and corn-grist, 

 and I soon discovered that they would eat any food, such as 

 is usually thrown out to young chickens. At first they 

 were wild; but, by being kept in a place where the servants 

 were constantly passing and repassing, they became tolera- 

 bly tame, and, after three weeks, were suffered to run about 

 the flower-garden, which contains a quantity of shrubberj^, 

 and is ninety feet long by seventy broad, with a fence tight 

 near the ground. 



To guard against their flying away, I took off the first 

 joint from a wing of each, which operation did not seem to 

 give them much pain, nor did it in any measure retard their 

 growth. In the autumn they moulted their feathers, and 

 continued free from disease, and have always b^en very 

 healthy. 



An unlucky cat, from the neighbourhood, conceived a 

 fancy for my birds, and carried ofi" one; and I was necessi- 

 tated to set box-traps, in which several of these enemies of 

 the feathered race were caught, and, by the consent of their 

 owners, were sent upon their travels. 



When the Partridges had obtained their full growth they 

 became very interesting, following me about the garden and 

 the house, and running up to me at the moment I called 

 them: this familiarity cost the life of another, for, in follow- 

 ing me into an upper piazza, it attempted to fly into the gar- 

 den, and was killed by the fall. Two only of the remaining 

 five were females, and I was obliged to commence my ex- 

 periment on rather a smaller scale. 



Sometime in IMarch, my ears were greeted with the sound 

 of "Bob White," at first low, but it increased in fulness of 

 tone. The other males soon followed, and, in a few days, 

 the whistle that charmed me so much in boyhood, and de- 

 lights me still, was heard from morning till night. These 

 birds were reared far removed from others, having listened 

 to no softer notes than those emitted by ducks and geese; 

 nevertheless, they uttered the song of their species: a proof 

 that it is natural, and requires no art to teach it to 

 them. They soon began to pair off, and look out for nests, 

 3N 



and some bloody battles were fought by the males. For the 

 preservation of peace, I removed one of them into an aviary, 

 where a couple of wild females of his kind were kept, but 

 to which he has never become fairlj^ reconciled, and he still 

 seems to sigh for his old haunts. I placed two boxes in a 

 sheltered situation within my garden, with a small quantity 

 of ha_y in and about them, in hopes that the birds might find 

 them suited to their purposes. I discovered that one of the 

 boxes had attracted them, and, in a few days, a very com- 

 pact little nest had been built. Upon the 2Sth of May, the 

 first egg was laid in the nest, and, after this, an egg was 

 added almost every day. About eight days ago, the second 

 hen began to lay in the same nest, verifying what I had 

 long suspected, that more than one female occasionally lay 

 in the same nest, as I have once seen twenty-eight eggs, and 

 at another time thirty-one, in a nest in the fields; and I once 

 received from a friend a few eggs, that were found in the 

 nest of a guinea-fowl. They have now (June 23d) laid 

 eighteen eggs, a part of which I have placed under a Ban- 

 tam hen, and a few remain upon which I intend one of the 

 birds to set. The other I think will begin laying again, 

 after her eggs have been taken from her; as in this climate 

 they raise two broods, and when, by some accident, their 

 eggs are destroyed, they lay several times during a summer. 

 I have examined by the light of a lamp, (according to my 

 usual custom) whether the eggs which were placed under a 

 hen are impregnated, and find that they are likely to pro- 

 duce young; and, therefore, I conclude that my experiment 

 will eventuate successfully : I commenced it with the eggs, 

 and brought the birds through all the stages until they have 

 produced eggs. 



Whether birds of this species will ever be raised to any 

 extent is doubtful, as it will only be attempted by those who 

 are curious in such matters; but my experiment shows that 

 it can be done without much trouble. I find them, also, 

 very amusing pets, they come regularly to be fed, and seem, 

 when neglected, to have a method of making me understand 

 that they are hungry. The males are very resolute, and 

 like the quails used in the cockpits of the ancients, are fear- 

 less pugnacious fellows, and attack the pigeons and poultry, 

 and are sure to follow and pick at every foot that approaches 

 their nest. 



I have some farther anecdotes of these interesting birds, 

 but am admonished, that, whilst I am amusing myself with 

 the relation of experiments which have been very interest- 

 ing to me, they may be less so to others. 



Yours, with great esteem, 



L. J. Salaignac, esq. 



A Lover of Natural Histort. 

 Charleston, S. C. June 23, 1S31. 



