The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1890-11-29
TANNING A FLOCK OF oUA1Ls.
Buckwheat and Gradual Advances Con-
quer the Wild Birds.


Several weeks ago Mrs. D. N. Snyder, of JEFF
ferson township Lacawana county, Pa, saw
lot of quails dusting themselves under some
currant bushes in the back end of her garden.
The birds looked SO happy that she thought it
would be too bad to disturb them so she return
ed to the house without pulling the weeds out
of 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 scat
tered some buckwheat around where they had
been wallowing. On the following day the
birds came there again, gobbled up the buck
wheat, 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 in
the garden as regularly as they did for rest
ing 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 remind
ed 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 left the
birds hunt for other kinds of food that day,
and for several mornings after that she didn't
fail to give them good feed of buckwheat.
Then she missed a morning on purpose to see
how the quails would act when they didn't
find any grain near the current bushes. watch
ing from a Second-Story window for them to
make their appearance.
Promptly on time the whole flock efeptunder
the garden fence from the meadow, ran among
the bushes and began to dodge and futter
about where they had been in the habit OF
finding the buckwheat. When they had
searched long enough to learn that no grain
had been put there for them, the birds piped in
low tones huttered uneaSily, scattered into the
vegetable BEDS and appeared to be very much
disappointed. In a little while the quails gave
up the search, assembled under the currant
o,,6x fOI I1cfi IN q
soil. Mrs. Snyder counted fourteen in the
flock, and then she went down stairs, got
basinful 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 q handful of buck
wheat 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
herself behind a row of pea vines: Presently
one of the birds ventured to crawl under the
fence into the garden. 1t soon found the buck
wheat, and set to filling its crop, and at this
the other birds, took courage, filed from their
hiding places, and went to picking up the grain
as though each was determinedto get its share.
From her place of concealment Mrs. Snyder
flung handful of buckwheat into the air, so
that it fell into the midst oft the flock. 1t scared
the birds little, but they quickly resumed
their feeding, and Mrs. Snyder began to whis-
tie TO them, hinging 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, grad
ually 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 many times over for all the trouble she
has made herself in getting the wild little crea-
lures to be as tame as they are.