286 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 
enter to feed her young, or desert them entirely; the mo- 
ment I was out of sight, she flew on the top of the cage, 
looking down through the wires with the greatest apparent 
agony, and making every attempt to get through; at last, 
having succeeded in finding the door, she entered, and 
having caressed them for a few moments, she flew off for 
food, but soon returned, and became apparently well pleased 
with her new residence, where she remained the whole 
of that day and night, and part of the next; then she was 
seen no more; whether she was killed, or sacrificed her off- 
spring to the fears for her own safety, I know not, but after 
waiting till night-fall, without seeing or hearing from her, 
I took the fifteen young Quails under my own care. They 
bore the closest possible resemblance to chickens, and had 
all the manners of chickens, the same chirp, and in a day or 
two the same way of pecking when let into the yard ; 
their food, for the first day or two, was given them in small 
pills of the size of a pea, and consisted of dough; in three 
days from the time they were taken, they fed themselves in 
the manner of fowls; one., the largest, and apparently the 
oldest, acting as leader or father of the flock, which they fol- 
lowed as young chickens do a mother. Their extreme youth 
when taken, and the manner of their bringing up, had ob- 
literated all recollection of their mother, and destroyed all 
fear of man, they ran to me at the sound of my voice as 
they would to the call of their own parent. I kept them now 
in a box lined with raw cotton, they grew and prospered 
wonderfully, being extremely lively, and always washing 
and dressing themselves when the sun was warm, and being 
much tamer than young chickens. I kept them in this way 
for six weeks, till the nights became quite cool, when it 
being impossible to supply the natural warmth of their 
mother by cotton, one cold night killed eight of them. 
I then placed the box on a warm stove, which would pre- 
serve the heat very well during the day and the early part 
of the night, but it being impossible to keep it exactly regu- 
lated all night, the cold again affected them, and one by one 
they died. If I had taken them in the spring, instead of 
the fall, 1 have no doubt my experiment would have suc- 
ceeded. 
With great respect, 
ONE OF YOUR SUBSCRIBERS. 
Boston, Dec. \9th, 1S31. 
UNITED BOWMEN. 
Messrs. Editors, 
I have promised you a notice for one of your Nos. of 
the annual meeting of the United Bowmen, for the purpose 
of trying their skill in competition for the prize of 1831;. 
and you have compelled me to keep that promise. I am 
sorry for it, for two reasons; the first is — but I must get at 
that, by giving you a little incident, in the form of a dia- 
logue, in which you may consider the party called Tom as 
pays elf. 
“Uncle, did you see that star shoot just now? 
No, my boy. 
Do stars turn round, uncle? 
No, Tom, the earth turns round. 
Don’t it turn round like a top, uncle? 
Something like a top, Tom. 
Well, uncle, mother gave me a top to-day for being at 
the head of the class.” 
Now its out; I got the prize myself, and did not know 
how to say so. So much for the first; the second is easy 
enough to tell. 
The shooting was so bad, that we don’t relish the idea of 
its going into print; to these two reasons for reluctance, a 
word of apology may be edged in, as “ a plea in mitigation 
of damages,” as our friend ^ would say in court; and 
that is, a prize shooting always results in a worse display of 
skill than any other time. Allow me to say for my com- 
petitors, while I am apologizing, that I did not get the prize 
for shooting better than they did, but because I did not 
shoot quite so bad. Let me also remark, that some of the 
gentlemen engaged in this contest, had never drawn a bow 
but at one or two practisings, in anticipation of this meet- 
ing. Let this fact account for the registry of two, three, 
and five hits, as reported hereafter. 
The report of the captain of the target for that day, con- 
tains all of interest in connection with the subject. I shall 
copy it for the information of your readers. 
“In compliance with the duties that have devolved on 
me as captain' of the target, on the twenty-fourth day of 
September, I proceed to lay before you the result of the 
contest on that day. It is the fourth annual meeting for 
the purpose of testing the skill of the. members of our asso- 
ciation, and rewarding its successful demonstration. I 
cannot resist the expression of the high degree of satisfac- 
tion that I have experienced, for three successive years, in 
acting as your captain, on a day of so much interest and 
excitement in witnessing the great urbanity of deportment 
that has existed at each of these ^contests; the more remarks 
able in consequence- of the keen rivalship so honourable to 
zealous archers. This spirit has prevailed so fully, that 
the office which I have held has been nearly a nomi- 
nal one; that of umpire and register altogether unnecessary, 
and being so, I judged it useless to tax any of our friends 
with the apparent responsibility.” 
The day selected for the trial was ushered in by gentle 
