58 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



A Gradually Disappearing Species. 



The Mountain Quail does not stand the advance of civiliza- 

 tion as the Bob-white and California or Valley Quail. I do not 

 know the reasons, except that they are more shy and as the 

 groves are cut, the swales drained and the land cultivated, these 

 quail gradually disappear. Today they are more abundant in 

 some of the small coast valleys of southern Oregon than any place 

 I know. I remember in the early nineties of seeing a great many 

 of these birds in Coos County, especially up some of the small 

 streams not far from the coast. They thrive best on the brushy 

 side hills along a stream at the edge or even away from the culti- 

 vated field. 



The nest of the Mountain Quail is often made at the edge or 

 a little under an old brush heap where it is carefully protected 

 from above, or it may be carefully hidden in the ferns or at the 

 base of a small fir sapling. I have found fifteen eggs in a nest, 

 although the average number is from ten to twelve. The eggs 

 are cream or buff colored and unspotted. The period of incuba- 

 tion is twenty-eight days, it might be a day or so more or less 

 according to the weather. 



Raising Quail in Captivity. 



On May 7, 1908, we set fifteen eggs of the Mountain Quail 

 under a bantam. On June 4, eleven quail eggs hatched. One of 

 the eggs had been stolen by some animal. One egg was addled; 

 the other two were slow in hatching. The chick in one of these 

 eggs died, but by picking a ring around the second egg with a 

 pin point and then wrapping it in a warm, wet cloth, this chick 

 came out of the shell all right. We wrapped him in a woolen 

 cloth and put him where it was warm; in about an hour he was 

 out and running around as lively as any of the others. 



Young quail seem to have a great deal of vitality. They 

 were very wary from the first, for whenever their bantam mother 

 fluttered her wings, the little quail scattered like a shower of 

 bullets for a hiding place under ferns or leaves. 



When first hatched, the Mountain Quail chick is definitely 

 marked with a brown streak edged with light yellow extending 

 down his back. Under each eye was a black streak. The rest of 

 the body was speckled brown and black. A few days after hatch- 

 ing, the chicks showed two or three fine stiff black feathers on 



