Dec. 20, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
785 
Notable Progress in Quail Propagation 
By HERBERT K. JOB, State Ornithologist of Connecticut 
Not finding it, I sat down in a half-inch of water 
in the bottom of the boat. Oh, yes, it was rough 
all right, and then some. 
There was an interval of ten minutes or more 
before another shot came our way, then four gray 
coots condescended to visit us. We made two 
clean kills and two cripples. One of these we 
lost, and the other we blew nearly out of water, 
so near did he come up to us. 
Out over the Brown Shoals the air was filled 
with a white mist of spume and foam, while 
things around the end of Long Beach Point were 
getting more business-like every minute. 
“Coming,” said Albert, spitting a mouthful 
of salt water, and as I gripped the side of the 
boat, for support, I sighted a flock of ducks. I 
should say there were eight or ten of them. 
Presently we saw that they were sheldrakes and 
w knew that we could do no business with them. 
They are as wary as black ducks, and our ex¬ 
posed position soon changed their course; and 
they went far outside. 
Albert shot up a couple of hell-divers, just 
to break the monotony, while I filled and lighted 
my pipe. Suddenly three white-wings hovered 
over the decoys. I don’t know where they came 
from, and I rose, steadied myself, and let them 
have it. I managed to drop one before the next 
sea took me, then I sat down hurriedly, and my 
long-legged companion ripped in two guns, 
knocking down two more. One of these he shot 
over and the other escaped by a series of quick 
and trick diving. 
I had heard stories of “rafts” of coots, but 
never until that moment had I been sure of their 
existence. Coming from the west was an im¬ 
mense “raft.” They passed over us out of range 
and settled to the water, ' far off-shore. They 
paid no attention to the decoys; they never do 
when in large congregations, but there certainly 
was a stack of them. Three “Quandies” came to 
pay their respects, and incidentally paid the toll. 
During the next twenty minutes Albert nego¬ 
tiated a double and I two singles. 
There were plenty of ducks feeding and fly¬ 
ing about inside of our position, but we couldn’t 
get at them, so they remained unmolested. It 
was interesting to watch them, a generous variety 
of “white-wings,” butter-bills, hell-divers, shel¬ 
drakes, “water-witches,” “Quandies” and a few 
loons. 
The sea was getting so rough as to make sure 
shooting almost impossible, and we had about 
decided to start homeward, when six long-tailed 
ducks came out of the east. We watched theif 
trim black and white bodies moving swiftly 
against the leaden sky, until we saw that there 
was a possibility of a shot, then we cocked guns 
and waited. On they came, until Albert said: 
“Let her rip.” We cut into them with a gun 
each. Two birds pitched seaward. Again we 
opened up. Two more dropped out. Our “pump” 
levers worked rapidly, and a fifth jerked side¬ 
ways, then came scaling at us, straight as an 
arrow. “Crazed,” said Albert; “good night.” 
Then his gun “barked” and the duck collapsed. 
We hauled in anchor and decoys, secured the 
birds, and headed for Plymouth Rock, with the 
engine coughing on the last notch. We were 
cold, hungry and wet, but oh, the keen enjoyment 
of it all. 
Deer Killed in Utah 
We do not register deer killed in Utah, but 
from accurate accounts kept by deputies there 
were about 200 killed in the state this fall during 
a fifteen-day open season, Oct. 1st to 15th. 
We do not know of a single accident among 
hunters this fall. If any accidents have happened 
they have been minor. 
F. W. Chambers, 
Fish and Game Commissioner. 
T HE past season has witnessed notable success 
in the breeding and rearing of the quail or 
bob-white by a number of workers, despite 
the fact that only recently such attempts were 
ridiculed and the thing declared impracticable and 
visionary. Thus far the work has been kept upon 
a moderate scale till details could be worked out. 
Various experimenters this past season have 
raised successfully from 100 to 300 quail, with 
trifling loss and no outbreak of disease. Work 
can now be properly attempted on a larger scale. 
Vice-President Quarles, of the American Game 
Protective and Propagation Association recently- 
stated to the writer that his organization now 
considers the problem solved. Their game-farm 
at Carver, Mass., raised quail successfully this 
season, as did the four State Game Farms of 
Massachusetts. Our new State Game Farm at 
Madison, Conn., made a good beginning in this 
work. At the Connecticut Agricultural College 
the efforts were successful, though, for want of 
stock, on a small scale. Results on private pre¬ 
serves and in other states were encouraging 
The writer conducted a successful experiment on 
a large estate, maturing about all that they tried 
to rear of quail, some 200. 
By way of example, I will outline briefly de¬ 
ductions from the latter experiment. The quail 
work was confined to a moderate scale, with a 
view to devising the most practicable method for 
game preserves, farms, and private estates. The 
breeding stock, though of southern origin, was 
held over winter with hardly the loss of a bird, 
in a large wire-fenced enclosure, open above, with 
plenty of shelter of brush, evergreen, and weeds, 
and some covered frames with evergreen boughs 
beneath. In spring about a dozen pairs were shut 
up for breeding, each pair in a separate small 
wire pen, with grass and brush. Others left free 
in the enclosure raised their own young. The 
confined pairs laid best, and their eggs were 
hatched by bantams. These were allowed to lead 
.laMofiJowNstNi) 
their young in the open, on lawns and in fields, 
brooding them in small bottomless coops at night. 
These were moved every other day to a fresh 
spot, to avoid fouling. Artificial feeding was- 
simple and light, the birds subsisting largely on 
their natural insect food. The young do not wan¬ 
der off, but stay faithfully with the hen till grown. 
They must be protected from cats, dogs, rats and 
vermin. In the Fall the young can be caught, if 
desired. In this experiment we are leaving them 
free, holding them by grain fields and feeding, 
stations. 
A good safe working plan for estates seems 
to be to leave the quail free, hold them by feed¬ 
ing, catch the required breeders during Winter,, 
force egg production in Spring and Summer, 
raise the young on free range, release the breed¬ 
ing-stock, trap vermin, and encourage natural 
breeding by the over-plus. Plant buckwheat, rye, 
millet, etc., in unused corners, and let it stand to 
hold the birds in Winter. Feeding-places should 
also be established and replenished. Once started, 
there would be no need to import stock. The 
state authorities will co-operate with any intelli¬ 
gent and reasonable efforts to increase game. 
Neighboring land-owners can well combine for 
such attempts. One large club has just raised a 
fund to conduct such work next season. Men 
who can handle such work are becoming in de¬ 
mand. 
Besides being a great game-bird, bob-white is 
one of the most useful birds to the farmer. A 
bird so fond of the potato-bug, bettles, cut¬ 
worms, moths, locusts, the boll-weevil and cotton- 
worm of the South, and other pests, besides be¬ 
ing a great devourer of weed seed, is doubly 
valuable, and is needed by every farmer. Our 
excellent and respected new Game Commission is 
giving every encouragement to the widespread 
movement for the propagation of game, particu¬ 
larly native game-birds. Within a few years 
there should be notable results in Connecticut, as 
well as elsewhere. 
