to prepared pheasant meal. Food should never be allowed to become stale. 

 A supply of fresh water is always necessary; it must be kept shaded and 

 cool. 



winter feeding. 



The openings of shelters should face south, and the center of the 

 cage should have one or more brush piles. Weed seeds (furnished by throw- 

 ing in the whole plants) and grain mixtxire:^ are good food, and an apple, 

 cabbage, or other vegetable should be placed where the birds can peck at 

 it. ilater should be supplied when snow is not available. 



Liberating . 



Quail batched early in summer should be fit for liberating in late 

 fall. Later broods should be kept through the winter. Patches of buck- 

 wheat, planted near or upon the rearing fields, tend to hold the birds in 

 the locality. 



Diseases. 



For treatment of various quail diseases see Farmers' Bulletin 390 

 issued by the United States Department of Agriculture. 



REARING MAGGOTS AND I^iEAL WORMS_FOR QUAIL. 



Rearing Maggots. 



The system of maggot rearing followed at the Massachusetts Hatchery 

 is to place fly-blown meat in inclined barrels, and as the maggots hatch 

 and consume the meat, to add a fresh supply, putting in dry sandy loam as 

 freely as is required to absorb the moisture and keep them covered. If the 

 number of maggots is not large thsy will grow in the barrel until ready 

 for use, when they will crawl out and drop into a box underneath. If they 

 are crowded they will crawl up vertical surfaces and escape. At such 

 times dust should be used freely. When grown they are screened into another 

 b'.ix and given a liberal supply of fresh sand for scouring, which they do by 

 squirming unceasingly until they change into the pupal stage.. It is very 

 r.bcessary to reserve a liberal number of maggots to change into breeding 

 flies, and this is rendered difficult at times by the activity of the 

 agencies that keep flies in check. At times there is an abnormal increase 

 of a small ichneumon fly, a parasite on the meat fly, that destroys them 

 in the pupal stage. The maggots reserved for the adult stage must be cov- 

 ered up to protect them from this fly. 



Rearing Meal Worms. 



Dr. C. F. Hodge says: Directions in the bird books for raising 

 meal worms are quite misleading, and in order to go to work intelligently 

 we must learn the life story from egg to egg. The first fact to learn is 

 that the insect is single brooded, that is, it requires an entire season 



