Seven adults quails and 10 chicks were individually placed into circle and square cages for a period of 5 minutes each. The general trend was that birds in the circle cage spent most of the time in or close to the center of the cage. And, in the square cage, the birds spent most of the time in the corners. The adult quail, on the other hand, were more active, with fear constituting the least of their behaviors. This experiment shows that shape of surrounding does not elicit particular behaviors but may contribute to how the space available is used.
Carotenoids produce the yellows, oranges, reds, and some of the blues and greens.
The pigmentation in feathers that is caused by carotenoids is mostly derived from the diet but there is some indication that the pigments can be deposited in the neonatal bird. A hypothesis that the hatching color of birds can be altered by the injection of color pigments was formed. To investigate this, an experiment was performed that entailed injecting neonatal Japanese Quail with beta-carotene and then comparing the results to the hatching color of normal neonatal Japanese Quail. The study utilized 10 control neonates injected with peanut oil and 10 experimental neonates which were injected with beta-carotene dissolved in peanut oil. Results indicate that the vehicle the carotene was dissolved in caused the infection.