December, 1881.] 
AND OOLOGIST. 
75 
which runs between the house and orchard, 
where he would meet her and eat the wheat 
that I daily scattered for them, after which 
they wotild slowly pick their way down 
through the orchard. The male keeps a 
watchful guard over his mate, and on seeing 
danger utters a quick pit, pit, pit, both 
starting on a run, the male keeping in the 
rear to protect and urge on his mate. Af¬ 
ter gaining a safe distance, the female takes 
her dust-bath, when they go to the creek, 
walking up and down the water’s edge—re¬ 
turning in a roundabout way to the nest. 
The male seldom went farther than the 
road, and we would not see nor hear from 
him again until the morning’s call, between 
ten and eleven o’clock, when the same 
meeting and greetings would be renewed 
The hen Quail v-as frightened from her 
nest three different times—the last was two 
days before she was going to hatch. It was 
about eight o’clock in the evening, and I 
w’as having a wire screen cage placed over 
the brush, wishing to keep her and her 
chicks. The brush was disturbed in some 
way so that she flew out and away to the 
orchard. As I looked out into the dark 
ness after -her I exclaimed, “ That is the 
last of my Quail hatching.” I decided to 
leave the eggs in the nest over night. In 
the morning I found her, faithful and de¬ 
termined, on her nest again, proving that 
disturbing a Quail, either before or while 
sitting, will not make her forsake her nest. 
That night I succeeded in getting the cage 
over her. When the morning ten o’clock 
call came she left her nest attempting to 
get out, but seeing the wheat scattered in 
the cage ate of it, and went back to her 
nest and eggs as usual. 
The second day the male, after calling 
and repeating his call many times in vain, 
came up to see why his mate did not put 
in her appearance. He walked around the 
cage uttering his warning call, pit, pit, but 
in a lower tone than when frightened. She 
tried to get out, but not succeeding he left. 
Her uneasiness continuing, I put the eggs 
under a bantam hen and hatched ten of the 
fourteen eggs. Now comes the part of 
bird devotion. I put the hen Quail in a 
large box with wiie screen front, and placed 
the box where the nest had been the day 
before, setting a figure-four trap a few feet 
from it, wishing to catch the male. Not 
succeeding, I then put in the box another 
male Quail which I had, thinking compan¬ 
ionship would quiet her attempts to get out, 
which it failed to do. In the morning about 
four o’clock I was awakened by repeated 
angry calls of a male Quail. I hurried to 
my window—which was not twenty feet 
from the cage—^and saw a male Quail flying 
and scratching at the wire screen and try¬ 
ing to get in. I went out to move the trap 
in front of the cage, as I saw that would be 
the only way to catch him. As I went to 
the cage he flew at me. and madly running 
around the box would not go away, keeping 
just beyond my grasp. I moved the trap 
I and when I reached my room I looked from 
I the window and saw the trap down with my 
bird safe. I put the hen Quail and her 
mate in the cage by themselves and direct¬ 
ly we could see the satisfaction of both. 
Five of the young chicks died, and my 
son has them as specimens. Four escaped 
from the cage when three days’ old, scud¬ 
ding out of sight wi‘h the wildness charac¬ 
teristic of the Quail. The remaining one 
we kept until nearly grown, answering the 
calls of the wild Quail outside when he es¬ 
caped. Of one thing my summer’s expe¬ 
rience convinced me, that our California 
Quail excels in devotion and sociability not¬ 
withstanding its shyness.— C. AI. Crowell, 
Haywards, Cal 
-- 
Snowy Owl. —Oliver Davie, of Colum¬ 
bus, Ohio, reports, under date of Novem¬ 
ber 2d, receiving a Snowy Owl, shot near 
Licking County reservoir the day previous. 
Dr. J. M. Whftrton, State ornithologist, 
informs him that this is probably the earliest 
record of this bird being taken in the State 
of Ohio. It is certainly very early for this 
bird to start on its southern migration, es¬ 
pecially in view of the fact that up to that 
date there was no indication of winter. 
