Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-09-25
TANNING A FLOCK OF aUA1Ls.
Buckwheat and Gradual Advances
CONQUER the Wild Birds.

Several weeks ago Mrs. d. N. Snyder,
of Jefferson township, Penn, saw lot
of quails dusting themselves under some
currant bushes in the back end OF her
garden. The birds looked so happy and
contented that she thought 1t would be
too bad to disturb them, so she returned
home without pulling the weeds out OF a
patch OF onions that she had gone there
for the purpose of doing. In an hour or
so the quails had disappeared in the tall
timothy of the adjoining meadow, and
Mrs. Snyder scattered some buckwheat
around where they had been wallowing.
On the following day the birds came
there again, gobbled up the buckwheat
and had good time. Every day for
week or so Mrs. Snyder scattered grain
among the bushes for the quails to feed
on, and the birds soon. got so that they
looked for food 1.-THE garden as regularly
as they did for a resting place at night
out in the woods, back of the big meadow
lot.
One morning the kind hearted woman
forgot to throw the buckwheat, but the
quails reminded her of her negligence by
appearing at the usual hour and making
great fuss and noise because there
wasn't any grain in the garden for them
to pick up. Mrs. Snyder let the birds
hunt for other kind of food that day, and
for several mornings after that she didn't
fail to give them good feed of buck
wheat. Then she missed morning on
purpose to see how the quails would act
when they didn't find any grain near the
currant bushes, watching from a second
atn ,,,,i,, fnr than, IN, thair
pearance.
Promptly on time the whole flock
crept under the garden fence from the
meadow, ran among the bushes and be-
gan to dodge and flutter about where
| they had been in the habit of finding
the buckwheat. When they searched
long enough to learn that no grain
had been put there for them, the birds
piped in low tones, fluttered uneasily.
scattered into the vegetable beds, and
appeared to be very much disappointed.
In little while the quails gave up the
search, assembled under the currant
bushes, and went to dusting themselves
in the soil. Mrs. Snyder counted four
teen in the flock, and then she went down
stairs, got handful of buckwheat, and
tiptoed her way into the garden.
When she had got as near to the quails
as she could get without soaring
them, Mrs. Snyder flung hand
full of buckwheat toward the quiet
little flock. 1t fell among them and they
all scampered under the fence and went
out of sight in hurry. Then she threw
some more of the grain on the ground
where they had been, and secreted her
self behind row of pea vines. Presently
one of the birds ventured to crawl under
the fence into the garden. 1t soon found
the buckwheat and set to filling its crop,
and at this the other birds took courage,
filed from their biding places, and went
to picking up the grain as though each
was determined to get its share.
From her place of concealment Mrs.
Snyder flung handful of buckwheat
into the air, so that it fell into the midst
of the flock. 1t scared the birds little,
but they quickly resumed their feeding,
and Mrs. Snyder began to whistle to them,
flinging more grain into the air as she
whistled. That excited their curiosity
just enough to make them look up for
moment, and Mrs. Snyder emptied the
basin and stole away, without letting the
birds see her. She fed the quails in this
way for few days, gradually got them
used to her whistle and voice, and let
them get sight of her by degrees. In
side of month from the time she first
saw the birds in the garden she had
them so well tanned that they futtered
out of the meadow whenever she called
them, ate in her presence, and did not
seem to fear her at all. Since then Mrs.
Snyder has taken good deal of comfort
with her strange little flock, and she
said the other day that the confidence
the birds have in her pays her many
times over for all the trouble she has
made herself in getting the wild little
creatures to be as tame as they are.