44 QUAILOLOGY - DOMESTICATION, ETC. 



being required, as the old birds will help themselves to the 

 chick food in preference to their own. 



In feeding young chicks great care should be taken not to 

 overfeed. An always hungry appetite with them is a whole- 

 some one, besides it saves the cleaning out of stale food which 

 should never be allowed to accumulate. Sour food of any kind 

 is unwholesome. 



The feed for the first week should consist of corn meal and 

 middlings mixed with the raw yolks of one or more eggs. 

 Some fanciers say hard boiled eggs; we cannot agree with 

 them as it is the most indigestible food for little chicks. Feed 

 the above sparingly and often at first, four or five times a day. 

 To this may be added ants and ants' eggs, and the bread 

 crumbs from your table will also be welcomed. A little later 

 maggots may be added to the diet. They may be produced by 

 exposing a piece of meat or sheep pluck to the flies and then 

 burying it in wet bran for a few days. A little millet seed can 

 now be given,and the third or fourth week you may commence 

 to merge them onto the softer food of the old birds. 



Keep the water dishes clean and a supply of fresh water 

 always in them, not too much, as it don't take a great amount 

 of water for a little quail, no bigger than the end of your 

 thumb, to get drowned in. 



Give a little grit in the form of sand, and don't fail to be 

 ever on your guard against lice. 



■U 



Enemies & Diseases 



The quail in the wild state has many enemies, the biggest of 

 which is the "game hog," but we trust our efforts here will 

 not extend his operations. In the state we have to consider it, 

 its enemies are not so numerous, still there are a few, the 

 house cat being the worst. Next we may enumerate the dog. 



