18 THE GAME BREEDER 



quail usually frequent certain parts of without heat, but their wings should be 



a field the shelters might well be placed clipped to prevent them from flying 



in or near such places. Various forms against windows or against the walls or 



of shelter have been tried but very sim- ceiling. I once wintered a flock of quail 



pie structures made of brush, corn stalks, on the brick pavement of a city yard, 



old fence rails or other material will inclosed by brick walls, using an old 



afford ample protection, provided they pine box for a shelter. The quail were 



be so made as to keep the quail from fed on corn and I did not loose a bird ; 



being imprisoned in the snow. I am in fact, they were all in fine condition 



strongly in favor of building the shel- when spring came, and their wing feath- 



ters in or near a briar patch, since the ers having grown, they all flew over the 



briars are a great protection to the birds wall and escaped, 



against vermin. The losses, both of birds and eggs, 



A very good shelter can easily and often are excessive on farms where the 

 quickly be made by leaning a row of crops are harvested by farm machinery, 

 old fence rails against a fence and mak- There are countless records of nests be- 

 ing a roof of brush or corn stalks on ing cut out ; of old birds and their young 

 these rafters. A few large corn shocks and eggs being destroyed. The birds are 

 opened up in the center and with a lot fond of nesting in fields of growing 

 of brush and briars thrown down on grain and hay and unless the nests be 

 rails or heavy sticks so placed about the found and protected — by leaving the 

 shocks as to keep the brush roof above grain or grass about the nests uncut — 

 the ground will make very attractive bad losses are sure to occur, 

 and safe shelters and a fence of chicken The gray partridges of Europe which 

 wire, with mesh large enough to permit have somewhat similar habits to our 

 the birds to enter, erected so as to in- quails often are decimated by farm ma- 

 close a small yard about the shelter, will chinery and losses occur sometimes on 

 lend additional safety to the place, since even the best preserved areas, 

 foxes do not like to enter wire en- Capt. Maxwell. says : "When the hay 

 closures. is cut the beat-keeper is always ther-% 



Dr. Robert Morris informed me that working his dog in front of the mowing 



he had good results on his preserve in machine and doing all he can to save 



Connecticut from conical shelters with his birds. . . . The farmers and the 



cemented bottoms. The cement prevent- keepers live on the best of terms ; the 



ed the food, grit, and dust, which he keepers can do them many a good turn in 



places in the shelters, from being af- the year, and in return the farmers lend 



fected by the moisture from the ground us their aid when most required, study- 



and, later, freezing. Straw, hay or dead ing the interests of the game at all times, 



grass on such cement floors would, I be- and most materially forwarding our ef- 



lieve, make them more attractive. forts in a hundred different ways by 



As already suggested food, grit and looking after their dogs, cutting their 



road dust, sand or ashes, should be placed hay and corn with regard to the birds in 



in the shelters and the birds should be it, and keeping their men from disturb- 



fed in and near them daily before the ing the fences." 



time for heavy storms arrives. A good W. Barry, Esq., cited by Maxwell, 



keeper should know just how many says : "We suffer losses among our 



covies of birds he is wintering and he young birds from the machines in the 



should be able to find them all quickly in hay harvest. Here every fourth field is 



severe weather. a hay-field and cut, as a rule, during 



In northern regions, where the win- the last ten days of June. If the season 



ters always are long and cold, it is is a late one, as generally happens, most 



not a bad plan to trap the birds in some of the young birds are only a few days 



of the most exposed fields and to house old and probably unable to get out of 



them for the winter. They can be kept the way. The result is that enormous 



safely in rat-proof barns or rooms numbers are killed in spite of every pre- 



