THE GAME BREEDER 



75 



one-mch mesh wire on the sides and over- 

 head, with 12 inch baseboard on the west 

 side and 2 inch baseboard on the south 

 and east sides, onto which the wire is 

 stapled. At each end I built a door 2 

 by 4 feet, the front door for feeding 

 them and the back door for reaching in 

 to get the eggs at that end. For my 

 pheasant pens one door is sufficient, but 

 for quail two doors — one on each end — 

 are absolutely necessary. Quail are very 

 sensitive to disturbance. " The north 

 end of their pen is closed with boards on 

 the west and north sides and also cov- 

 ered with boards overhead to keep rain 

 off, supply them with shade and give 

 them a place of refuge. As their pen is 

 connected with the pheasant pen on the 

 east and south sides, these sides are only 

 closed with wire. Quail must have some 

 hiding places to keep dogs, cats and also 

 strangers from frightening them. For 

 that reason I built a platform on the 

 north end two feet above the ground, 4 

 by 4 feet, and covered this with a layer 

 of nice, soft, dry grass, and on this I 

 placed some corn stalks and over these a 

 thick pile of evergreen boughs, leaning 

 to the north end of the pen, with a small 

 opening for entrance on both sides. This 

 served them as a hiding place and to 

 build their nests. Without such a hid- 

 ing place it would seem impossible to 

 successfully raise Gambel quails in cap- 

 tivity. Without hiding places they would, 

 when disturbed, dash wildly against the 

 wire in every direction, harm themselves 

 and very likely break their necks. In 

 such places they feel perfectly content 

 and safe. 



My quail always preferred this upper 

 story of their hiding place. Here they 

 would skulk, here they would sleep, and 

 here they also made their nests. 



When I first released the quail, they 

 were desperately wild, and for the first 

 two weeks they would hide as soon as 

 any human being approached. By and 

 by they became tamer, at last so tame 

 that I could stand quite close by and 

 watch them eat and dust themselves. 



The Gambel quail never calls Bob- 

 white, but has a number of other calls. 



Its call is hard to write down on paper. 

 To my ear its general call sounds like 

 this : A-ge-ha. ! A-ge-ha ! When 

 alarmed it calls : Tic-tic-tic-tic. When 

 mate is lost it calls Ge-ha ! Ge-ha ! fre- 

 quently repeating the different calls. 



On May 10 the hen layed her first egg 

 in a hollow of the grass underneath the 

 evergreen boughs on the platform. The 

 nest was well hid. Thereafter she layed 

 nine more eggs on the following days : 

 May 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24,_ 25. 

 May 14 and 15 she layed her eggs in a 

 nest on the ground underneath the plat- 

 form. The other eggs were all layed in 

 the same nest on the platform. I never 

 made use of any nest egg. I searched 

 for the eggs every day towards evening 

 from the door near the nest. As I never 

 searched for the eggs in the forenoon, 

 I can't say whether any were layed at 

 that time or not. But I positively know 

 that one egg was layed between 4 and 

 6 o'clock P. M. The eggs were kept in 

 bran on end in a cool cellar and turned 

 each day the other end up. 



On May 26, after the hen had layed 

 three eggs during the three preceding 

 days, I found her dead in her nest ready 

 to deposit another egg. I had been feed- 

 ing her quite some angle-worms during 

 those days, which, as I presume, caused 

 excessive laying and, becoming egg- 

 bound, caused her death. 



Two days before the last Gambel egg 

 was layed I found a nest of Bob-white 

 eggs in a strawberry patch out in the 

 country. Some bird had just begun to 

 rob the nest. One empty egg was lying 

 on the ground near the nest and another 

 on top of a fence post close by. In order 

 to save the rest — seven in number — I 

 took them home and put them in bran 

 with the Gambel eggs. The eggs are of 

 the same size, only more pointed and 

 pure white, whereas the color of the 

 Gambel eggs is creamy- white, marked 

 with blackish brown spots and blotches. 



When the first Gambel egg was eight- 

 een days old I began to incubate them. 

 Odds were against me. I had no ban- 

 tam cluck at that time. Luckily my Lady 

 Amherst hen had just become broody 



