QUAIL PROPAGATION METHODS 53 



introduced into a colder climate that each new generation 

 which survives becomes hardier and better accHmated. 

 Senator McLean's birds readily enter buildings, and they 

 could easily have been shut up during the winter. He 

 will let them breed this summer unconfined, and try to work 

 out a practical plan. It looks as though coveys of these 

 birds, started artificially, could be maintained in freedom 

 with reasonable care and feeding. I have no question 

 but that the California and Gambel's quails, which are 

 likewise docile, could be managed in the same way. 



Gambel's Quail. I have watched some small experiments 

 also with the valley and Gambel's quails, and judge that 

 they are no harder to breed and raise than the above. The 

 methods to be employed with each are the same as with the 

 bob-white, except that the scaled and vaUey quails seem to 

 breed well in groups, pairing off naturally. Probably it is 

 the same with the Gambel's. 



Valley Quail. A very interesting and important propa- 

 gation experiment with the valley quail is being conducted 

 by C. H. Shaw, of Eccles, CaKfomia. He began in 1912, 

 and raised a few broods successfully. In 19 13, using 

 both bantams and incubators, he raised about 150. Owing 

 to lack of bantams, he had to resort to artificial incubation. 

 In 1914, from a breeding-stock of forty pairs of tame, hand- 

 reared birds, he secured 1,350 eggs. Those which were 

 hatched under what hens he could muster he reared success- 

 fully with little loss and without disease. He had remark- 

 able hatches with incubators, from 220 eggs hatching 184, 

 and from another of 208 getting 160 chicks, an average of 

 over 80 per cent. Other hatches averaged about the same. 

 But the brooder record was tragic, for he raised but very few 

 by that method. He writes that the problem of propagating 

 the California or valley quail, at least in its natural habitat, 



