106 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
nected with this species. After speaking of some 
QuailSj or Partridges, as he calls them indiscrimi- 
nately, that had been brought up by a hen, he 
says It has been frequently asserted to me, 
that the Quails lay occasionally in each other's 
nests. Though I have never myself seen a case 
of this kind, I do not think it altogether impro- 
bable, from the fact that they have often been 
known to drop their -eggs in the nest of the com- 
mon hen, when that happened to be in the fields, 
or at a small distance from the house. The two 
Partridges above mentioned were raised in this 
manner ; and it was particularly remarked by 
the lady who gave me the information, that the 
hen sat for several days after her own eggs were 
hatched, until the young Quails made their ap- 
pearance. The Partridge, on her part, has some- 
times been employed to hatch the eggs of the 
common domestic hen. A friend of mine, who 
himself made the experiment, informs me that of 
several hen’s eggs which he substituted in place of 
those of the Partridge, she brought out the whole ; 
and that for several weeks, he occasionally sur- 
prised her, in various parts of the plantation, with 
her brood of chickens, on which occasions she 
exhibited the most distressful alarm, and practised 
her usual manoeuvres. Even after they were con- 
siderably growm, and larger than the Partridge 
herself, she continued to lead them about ; but 
though their notes or call were those of common 
chickens, their manners had all the shyness, 
timidity, and alarm of young Partridges, running 
with great rapidity, and squatting in the grass,, 
exactly in the manner of the Partridge. Soon 
after this they disappeared, having probably been 
