i88 3 .] 
General Notes. 
187 
mother hen showed a disposition to shun the house and the associations 
of the barn-yard, and in their company to lead a wild and roving life. In 
due course of time the maternal solicitude weakened, and finally she 
reassumed her wonted place in the hennery. Strangely enough the Quail 
now in turn showed the effect of the temporary association, and, unwilling 
to entirely dispense with the motherly care, followed her to the hennery 
into which they frequently penetrated and fed. They never roosted there 
but retired at night to the branches of the nearest trees. 
As the fall approached the brood was scattered — perhaps some were 
killed by Hawks — but at the time of my visit, the following spring, a 
portion of the number still frequented the neighborhood, and could be 
distinguished from other Quail by their tameness. 
I believe that nearly all the experiments that have been tried in domesti- 
cating game birds have been made with old birds which have been allowed 
to rear their own young. Yet the above facts would seem to indicate 
that by allowing a domestic fowl to hatch the eggs and assume sole 
charge of the young, considerable impression may be made on their 
wildness, even when, as in the case narrated, the birds were left entirely 
free to follow the dictates of their own wills and instincts. Had the 
brood in question been deprived of the powers of flight at an early age, 
and their ability to range about been thus circumscribed in part or wholly, 
a very much greater effect on their wild spirits would have followed. 
Whether by the adoption of these or any other measures the California 
T.opkortyx or any other of our Quails and Grouse can be fully domesti- 
cated is a matter which perhaps admits of much doubt, but which can 
only be satisfactorily demonstrated by actual experiments more carefully 
and systematically made than those hitherto attempted. — H. W. Hen- 
shaw, Washington , D. C. 
The Wood Ibis in Massachusetts. — Mr. E. C. Greenwood, oflpswich, 
writes me that a Wood Ibis ( Tantalus loculator ) was taken “June 19, 1880, 
at Georgetown, Mass., by the late Frank Hale, which was given to me.” 
This is the first record of the species not only for Massachusetts, but for 
New England. It has, however, been taken at Troy, N. Y., and Williams- 
port, Penn, (see this Bulletin, Vol. I, p. 96), as well as at equally northern 
localities further west. — J. A. Allen, Cambridge , Mass. 
The Scarlet Ibis in Florida. — During a recent visit to Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, I found a Scarlet Ibis in the Museum of the College 
of Charleston, which is apparently a veritable United States example. 
The label bears the simple inscription “Scarletlbis, Ibis rubra, Florida,” 
in the handwriting (sol was told by Dr. Manigault, the present curator) 
of Dr. Holmes, the late curator of the collection. Behind this memoran- 
dum it is impossible to go, there being no catalogue or other record of 
the collection of birds. The specimen itself (an adult, mounted) is 
evidently very old, being faded, dust-stained, and badly moth-eaten. As 
it must have been placed in the collection well back in the period of Dr. 
