Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-15
TIE QUAIL.
How the Mother Quail Brings Up Hell
Brood
TSan Jose Mercury

TSan Jose Mercury
Those persons who have noticed the
large tiocks of quails-apparen.ly but a
single brood-that are found in the summer
and autumn, have wondered how one bird
could hatcn such number of young or
could provide for them when Matched The
explanation as to the number is often given
that two or more birds have laid in the
same nest, while it has been generally as.
sumed that the parents proportional their
diligence and assiduity to the numbers de.
pendent upon them. The writer has several
times had the opportunity of observing the
course pursued by our valley quails, and
has been greatly interested in it. After
pairing off IN the spring the female quail
selects some secluded place for her house
keeping arrangements, and lays her eggs,
varying in number from fifteen or twenty
to twice or thrice that number. The theory
that two or more birds unite to produce
the large broods seen is quite unnecessary,
as we have seen a pair kept in a coop in
which the hen laid seventy-fve eggs with
out showing any disposition to set. Prob.
ably in wild state, and compelled to range
for food, the production would be less !;
but we see no reason for supposing that
under reasonably favorable surroundings
one bird might not lay three or four dozen
eggs
THE PLACE SELECTED FOR THE NEST
Is usually some small cavity or depression
in the soil, by the side of stone, where
some plant has been partially uprooted, or
| in the track of an animal. The eggs are
not distributed IN layer, as with domes-
tic fowls, but are piled one above another
as they would be IN small basket. Upon
this pile of eggs the hen establishes her.
self, while her watchful lord stations him
self upon some neighboring eminence-a
| fence, rock or tree-and looks out for in
truders, occasionally relieving his spouse
by covering the eggs while she is hunting
a hasty meal. For twenty seven days the
| little bird keeps her patient vigil, and then
comes her reward. A host of downy,
| bright-eyed, restless beauties swarm about
her. A peculiar note apprises the father
of the event, and wild with excitement he
| flies from his perch to the nursery and
back-his every gesture and note betoken.
! ing his enhanced Importance and his anx-
| iety. But few hours from the first
symptoms of life in the eggs till all or the
brood are out, at least all that are to make
a successful exit, and off starts the mother
with her brood about her. What life there
may yet be id the eggs remaining in the
nest, what infants there may be still pick
Ing at their prison walls, she does not con-
slider. Tne wants OF those that are In
sight, the hungry little ones about her, alb
sorb her every faculty; and as indifferent
to what she may be leaving, as though they
were pebbles and not
HER STRUGGLING OFFSPRING,
She starts with such as can follow, and
those she leaves behind are left forever.
And now comes the explanation as to how
this hungry horde is fed. A moments OBJ
servation makes it plain. Each little quail
does his own foraging. Along walks the
mother, with head erect and eye alert, for
either food or danger, and for space OF
two or three yards on either side travel the
covey. Everything that comes before the
ubs,e quail that looks as though it might
be food IL picked up-seeds, bits OF sticks,
of leaves. gravel, insects, and their eggs,
small worms--all are tested, and by some
sense, as swift as it is unerring the edible
is swallowed and that which is not is
dropped. Occasionally, by scratch, the
mother uncovers a bonanza OF ants eggs,
seeds or small grubs, and with cluck her
brood are called to the treasure; out gen.
rspally u, witt. q cali peculiar to her mission.
she keeps them within few feet OF her.
| self as she takes her cautious and watchful
way. Fifteen or twenty minutes OF this
| foraging, and with marvellous apprecia-
| ton of the feebleness of her brood, she
calls them to her, and a half hour siesta re-
news their vigor, and the march continues
And SO on with intervals of feeding and of
rest, with wider range and longer periods
of foraging, as their strength increases, she
brings forward her progeny. From the
first marvelously swift, in very few days
| they make quite flight, and are soon able
to escape or elude most of their natural
enemies. In nothing is
THE INSTINCT OF THE MOTHER
Quail more noticeable than in that which
/ teaches her to abandon the few for the
security of the many From the moment