50 QUAILOLOGY - LETTERS & CLIPPINGS. 



and chicks and place them in a pen 8x4x2 feet high. I make 

 the sides and ends of lumber, and cover the top with one inch 

 mesh wire, and it should be built in a sunny place and have no 

 floor, and should be well supplied with sand and dust. 

 Across one end of this pen I build a box the width and heighth 

 of the pen and 2 feet deep, with slats in front, so as to allow 

 the chicks to enter the main pen but prevent the hen from do- 

 ing so, and so constructed that the chicks can go to her and so 

 the hen can get her head between the slats and call and feed 

 the chicks. I place the feed directly in front of the slats in the 

 main pen, keeping the hen in this box until I see the chicks 

 are strong enough to allow the hen to enter the pen with them. 



I feed finely chopped chick-weed or lettuce together with 

 boiled eggs, maggots, ground corn and mixed bird seed. I pro- 

 duce the maggots by exposing a piece of meat or a sheep pluck 

 to the flies, and then putting it in a barrel and covering it with 

 moist bran. Every three or four days I start a second lot so as 

 to always have some on hand when I start a new lot. By fol- 

 lowing this plan the Mongolian Pheasant can be successfully 

 raised, and I have had fair success with quail. I constantly 

 keep plenty of good sharp grit and plenty of green feed and 

 pure water in my aviary, and have never had any trouble with 

 my birds. About the time I expect the eggs to hatch, I place a 

 fine wire screen over the hen and nest in order that the chicks 

 cannot get out of the nest else they would run away. I also 

 remove the hen from the nest and place her in the pen as soon 

 as possible after the eggs are hatched. I feed six times a day. 



From what I have been able to observe quail and pheasant 

 feed their young on insects for the first few days and until they 

 become able to look after themselves a little when they begin 

 to seek more solid food such as grain and grass seeds. I find 

 the maggots the best and most easy procured substitute to take 

 the place of the Insects, etc, that the birds would get in their 

 natural haunts. 



