QUAIL PROPAGATION METHODS 51 



and in open pens with a little shelter survive the tempera- 

 tures met in southern New England and Long Island. It 

 will take years of experiment to ascertain whether they can 

 maintain themselves in the wild state. I was told, however, 

 by Harry T. Rogers that the scaled quail was propagated on 

 his father's place on Long Island, New York, and^ in spite of 

 shooting in the fall, did not disappear for several seasons. 

 At any rate, it is proved that they breed abundantly and 

 successfully in captivity. 



McLean Experiment. During the season of 19 14, on the 

 estate of United States Senator George P. McLean, at Sims- 

 bury, Connecticut, I directed experiments with a small 

 stock of scaled quails and bob-whites. The first thing no- 

 ticeable is that the former are tamer than the bob-whites, 

 showing themselves more so, and not skulking so much 

 under the brush-piles. They laid equally well separated 

 into pairs in small coops or together in a larger pen, in this 

 respect also surpassing the bob-white. We raised the young 

 of both kinds with bantams, on the free-range plan, without 

 disease or loss. They flew off into the woods and alighted in 

 the trees, but at night went into the coops with the bantams. 

 By early September the older scaled quails were fully grown, 

 and some of them began to stay out nights away from the 

 hen, though they ran with her by day. Where broods were 

 of the same age, both kinds associated, and were fond of 

 frequenting an ash-heap and the tracts of weed around it 

 close to the gamekeeper's house. They would all run into 

 the weeds when closely approached. If further pressed, 

 they whirred off to the wooded side-hill nearby. The ban- 

 tams would chase after them, call, gather the broods, and 

 lead them back to the dump. At night they would go 

 with the hens into the coops nearby, the broods considerably 

 mixed. At present writing, in December, they are perfectly 



