286 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 



enter to feed her young, or desert them entirely; the mo- 

 ment I was out of sight, she flew on the top of the cage, 

 looking down through the wires with the greatest apparent 

 agony, and making every attempt to get through; at last, 

 having succeeded in finding the door, she entered, and 

 having caressed them for a few moments, she flew off for 

 food, but soon returned, and became apparently well pleased 

 with her new residence, where she remained the whole 

 of that day and night, and part of the next; then she was 

 seen no more; whether she was killed, or sacrificed her ofi"- 

 spring to the fears for her own safety, I know not, but after 

 waiting till night-fall, without seeing or hearing from her, 

 I took the fifteen young Quails under my own care. They 

 bore the closest possible resemblance to chickens, and had 

 all the manners of chickens, the same chirp, and in a day or 

 two the same way of pecking when let into the yard ; 

 their food, for the first day or two, was given them in small 

 pills of the size of a pea, and consisted of dough; in three 

 days from the time they were taken, they fed themselves in 

 the manner of fowls; one, the largest, and apparently the 

 oldest, acting as leader or father of the flock, which they fol- 

 lowed as young chickens do a mother. Their extreme youth 

 when taken, and the manner of their bringing up, had ob- 

 literated all recollection of their mother, and destroyed all 

 fear of man, they ran to me at the sound of my voice as 

 they would to the call of their own parent. I kept them now 

 in a box lined with raw cotton, they grew and prospered 

 wonderfully, being extremely lively, and always washing 

 and dressing themselves when the sun was warm, and being 

 much tamer than young chickens. I kept them in this way 

 for six weeks, till the nights became quite cool, when it 

 being impossible to supply the natural warmth of their 

 mother by cotton, one cold night killed eight of them. 

 I then placed the box on a warni stove, which would pre- 

 serve the heat very well during the day and the early part 

 of the night, but it being impossible to keep it exactly regu- 

 lated all night, the cold again affected them, and one by one 

 they died. If I had taken them in the spring, instead of 

 the fall, 1 have no doubt my experiment would have suc- 

 ceeded. 



With great respect, 



ONE OF YOUR SUBSCRIBERS. 

 Boston, Dec. I9th, 1S31. 



UNITED BOWMEN. 



Messrs. Editors, 



I have promised you a notice for one of your Nos. of 

 the annual meeting of the United Bowmen, for the purpose 



of trying their skill in competition for the prize of 1831; 

 and you have compelled me to keep that promise. I am 

 sorry for it, for two reasons; the first is — but I must get at 

 that, by giving you a little incident, in the form of a dia- 

 logue, in which you may consider the party called Tom as 

 myself. 



"Uncle, did you see that star shoot just now? 



No, my boy. 



Do stars turn round, uncle? 



No, Tom, the earth turns round. 



Don't it turn round like a top, uncle? 



Something like a top, Tom. 



Well, uncle, mother gave me a top to-day for being at 

 the head of the class." 



Now its out; I got the prize myself, and did not know 

 how to say so. So much for the first; the second is easy 

 enough to tell. 



The shooting was so bad, that we don't relish the idea of 

 its going into print; to these two reasons for reluctance, a 

 word of apology may be edged in, as "a plea in mitigation 

 of damages," as our friend ^ would say in court; and 

 that is, a prize shooting always results in a worse display of 

 skill than any other time. Allow me to say for my com- 

 petitors, while I am apologizing, that I did not get the prize 

 for shooting better than they did, but because I did not 

 shoot quite so bad. Let me also remark, that some of the 

 gentlemen engaged in this contest, had never drawn a bow 

 but at one or two practisings, in anticipation of this meet- 

 ing. Let this fact account for the registry of two, three, 

 and five hits, as reported hereafter. 



The report of the captain of the target for that day, con- 

 tains all of interest in connection with the subject. I shall 

 copy it for the information of your readers. 



"In compliance with the duties that have devolved on 

 me as captain of the target, on the twenty-fourth day of 

 September, I proceed to lay before you the result of the 

 contest on that day. It is the fourth annual meeting for 

 the purpose of testing the skill of the members of our asso- 

 ciation, and revi^arding its successful demonstration. I 

 cannot resist the expression of the high degree of satisfac- 

 tion that I have experienced, for three successive years, in 

 acting as your captain, on a day of so much interest and 

 excitement in witnessing the great urbanity of deportment 

 that has existed at each of these contests; the more remark- 

 able in consequence of the keen rivalship so honourable to 

 zealous archers. This spirit has prevailed so fully, that 

 the office which I have held has been nearly a nomi- 

 nal one; that of umpire and register altogether unnecessary, 

 and being so, I judged it useless to tax any of our friends 

 with the apparent responsibility." 



The day selected for the trial was ushered in by gentle 



