AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
233 
seven. This vicious propensity I can only account for by 
the circumstance, that the servants were in the habit of care- 
lessly throwing dead chickens into the yard, which had 
given the poultry a taste for meat. Be this as it may, I was 
mortified in seeing one half of the brood thus greedily 
swallowed by their unnatural stepmother. The seven that 
remained were removed from the hen till the next morning, 
when they were put into a box, five feet by two, and the 
hen once more placed near them. She from that moment 
seemed to regard them as her own, and evinced extreme 
affection for them. The box was railed across the top, and 
divided into two apartments by rails within ; so that, if 
any delicacies were given to the young, the hen could not 
reach them. They were fed on alum-curds and corn-grist, 
and I soon discovered that they would eat any food, such as 
is usually thrown out to young chickens. At first they 
were wild; but, by being kept in a place where the servants 
were constantly passing and repassing, they became tolera- 
bly tame, and, after three weeks, were suffered to run about 
the flower-garden, which contains a quantity of shrubbery, 
and is ninety feet long by seventy broad, with a fence tight 
near the ground. 
To guard against their flying away, I took off the first 
joint from a wing of each, which operation did not seem to 
give them much pain, nor did it in any measure retard their 
growth. In the autumn they moulted their feathers, and 
continued free from disease, and have always been very 
healthy. 
An unlucky cat, from the neighbourhood, conceived a 
fancy for my birds, and carried off one; and I was necessi- 
tated to set box-traps, in which several of these enemies of 
the feathered race were caught, and, by the consent of their 
owners, were sent upon their travels. 
When the Partridges had obtained their full growth they 
became very interesting, following me about the garden and 
the house, and running up to me at the moment I called 
them: this familiarity cost the life of another, for, in follow- 
ing me into an upper piazza, it attempted to fly into the gar- 
den, and was killed by the fall. Two only of the remaining 
five were females, and I was obliged to commence my ex- 
periment on rather a smaller scale. 
Sometime in March, my ears were greeted with the sound 
of “Bob White,” at first low, but it increased in fulness of 
tone. The other males soon followed, and, in a few days, 
the whistle that charmed me so much in boyhood, and de- 
lights me still, was heard from morning till night. These 
birds were reared far removed from others, having listened 
to no softer notes than those emitted by ducks and geese; 
nevertheless, they uttered the song of their species: a proof 
that it is natural, and requires no art to teach it to 
them. They soon began to pair off, and look out for nests, 
3 N 
and some bloody battles were fought by the males. For the 
preservation of peace, I removed one of them into an aviary, 
where a couple of wild females of his kind were kept, but 
to which he has never become fairly reconciled, and he still 
seems to sigh for his old haunts. I placed two boxes in a 
sheltered situation within my garden, with a small quantity 
of hay in and about them, in hopes that the birds might find 
them suited to their purposes. I discovered that one of the 
boxes had attracted them, and, in a few days, a very com- 
pact little nest had been built. Upon the 28th of May, the 
first egg was laid in the nest, and, after this, an egg was 
added almost every day. About eight days ago, the second 
hen began to lay in the same nest, verifying what I had 
long suspected, that more than one female occasionally lay 
in the same nest, as I have once seen twenty-eight eggs, and 
at another time thirty-one, in a nest in the fields; and I once 
received from a friend a few eggs, that were found in the 
nest of a guinea-fowl. They have now (June 23d). laid 
eighteen eggs, a part of which I have placed under a Ban- 
tam hen, and a few remain upon which I intend one of the 
birds to set. The other I think will begin laying again, 
after her eggs have been taken from her; as in this climate 
they raise two broods, and when, by some accident, their 
eggs are destroyed, they lay several times during a summer. 
I have examined by the light of a lamp, (according to my 
usual custom) whether the eggs which were placed under a 
hen are impregnated, and find that they are likely to pro- 
duce young; and, therefore, I conclude that my experiment 
will eventuate successfully: I commenced it with the eggs, 
and brought the birds through all the stages until they have 
produced eggs. 
Whether birds of this species will ever be raised to any 
extent is doubtful, as it will only be attempted by those who 
are curious in such matters; but my experiment shows that 
it can be done without much trouble. I find them, also, 
very amusing pets, they come regularly to be fed, and seem, 
when neglected, to have a method of making me understand 
that they are hungry. The males are very resolute, and 
like the quails used in the cockpits of the ancients, are fear- 
less pugnacious fellows, and attack the pigeons and poultry, 
and are sure to follow and pick at every foot that approaches 
their nest. 
I have some farther anecdotes of these interesting birds, 
but am admonished, that, whilst I am amusing myself with 
the relation of experiments which have been very interest- 
ing to me, they may be less so to others. 
Yours, with great esteem, 
L. J. Salaignac, esq. 
A Lover op Natural History. 
Charleston, S. C. June 23, 1S31. 
