Quails. 
325 
them for at least two months after they are able to fly. 
The nest is a mere depression in the ground, in a 
clump of coarse grass, loosely lined with a few grass stems. 
The eggs are usually five or six in number; olive-brown in 
colour, more or less speckled with reddish-brown or purplish- 
grey dots. 
In the aviary their habits are very similar to those 
described above. In my late aviary, when I kept this species 
I- could only supply growing grass in boxes and change them 
pretty freciuently. While these were in the aviary they were 
always used as squatting places, but though eggs were fre- 
quently dropped about, no attemi)t was made to incubate them, 
which is scarcely to be wondered at. 
With those aviarists having roomy natural aviaries at 
their disposal thay have bred freely — in one aviary as many 
as ,30 were reared in one season from a single pair. 
In my aviary they had access to canary, millet and the 
coarser seed mixture for the Cardinals and Parrakeets, but 
their princpal diet was the former, they also picked over 
the soft mixture and at times got both gentles and live ants' 
" eggs " — of mealworms they got a few daily — they were the 
first to attack flowering grass and other weeds, when the 
daily supply was put in. When rearing young, live ants' 
" eggs," gentles and fine ground Partridge meal, made crumbly 
moist should be supplied, Imt they soon begin to pick up seed. 
Some aviarists give finely minced hard boiled yolk of egg for 
the first few days. 
The young are very precocious and are in full 
adult plumage at the age of about five weeks. 
Unless the aviary is a large one, it is a wise precaution 
to clip one wing, this is usually sufficient, as by the time 
the moult has passed, they are mostly sufficiently settled not 
to damage themselves by wild upAvard flights. 
A pair of these or some other species of Quail <iught 
to be in every out-door aviary and a grassy corner ought 
to be manufactured for them somehow--by constant renewal, 
if no other means are available. 
THE BLACK-BREASTED OR RAIN QUAIL.* 
This handsome species has been known to aviculturists 
* Coturnix coromandelica 
