Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-01-13

trlbution throughout the state, just as
trout are, pheasant, black duck, mai
layds, wood duck and quail. All OF
this work is pioneer work as regards
the state some of. it is work that has
never elsewhere been successfully ac-
complished on fairly large scale as
it is being done here.
The work with quail this year, UNI
der the efficient direction of DR. Field,
chairman of the fish and game COM
mission, has been particularly sue
cessful and bids fair to show the way
to a successful restocking of our
Massachusetts covers, where, of late
years, the quail have become almost
extinct. Two hundred young quail
are to be seen in eoops at the hatch
cry, and anything cutter thansthese
tiny youngsters one would have to go
far to see. They range from birds
which are practically full grown, born
of early clutches of eggs, to the stiniest
youngsters. Indeed, one small clutch
of eggs is still under a foster mother
bantam hen. This increase has come
from 20 laying pair, and if all goes
we'll with them it will readily be seen
that there is a chance for large
number of birds for another season.
Quail are prolific. They breed readily
in captivity and the mother bird lays
early, late and often.
Last summer a single quail at the
hatchery laid 102 eggs. She was kept
IN an open Wire coop f9yr by eight
feet square. and may have&one so wen
on eggs because she had nothing else
to occupy her mind. The ground was
bare and she could not even build
nest, laying her eggs on the dry earth.
When one nestful was taken she
changed the laying place to another
corner of the pen and tried it all over
again. That was doing well for quail
in captivity, even though sf1ch are the
best layers. often producing so eggs in
a season, They begin Living late in
April, and sometimes keep it up until
cold Weather comes. At sutton it is
the custom TO take the little, white,
poin.ed Eggs in lots OF % or SO as soon
as laid and put them under a bantam
hen. Bantams seem t1.&be made for
foster-mothers, and they Ie raised at
the hatchery by the hufnad. for this
purpose. a cross between a straight
and Dantam and a silky, being the
one found most desirable. 1.-THE time
taken for Matching is usually "a days,
varying in extreme cases. from 22H to
2S. The bantams are good sftters and
after the young are few days old
they are invariably good breeders. U.s.
ually they are motherly right straight
through, but once in a while one of
them is astounded at the fairy tale
chicks which come to her out of the
tiny, pointed-pearl eggs and kills them
on The spot. Hence 1t is customary
at the hatchery to take the eggs from
the bantams at the last moment and
finish them in an incubator, returning
the chicks to the hep little later.
Quail are exceedingly active birds. In
a state of nature they are on the go
most Of the time While awake, and in
captivity those conditions which give
them the most freedom are found 10
be most productive of good results.
The young birds have to be confined
with the mother bantam for a few days
to learn her language. AT first her
anxious clucks send them to. cover in
stead Of calling. them to. her. But
after a little they learn to understand
and then only 4fhe hen is confined, the
between the Stats of the COOP and go
ont into the underbrqsh. The hatchery
lies right for this Scrubby hilIsides
encompass it on the west and north,
and the coops are set on the edge of
these. The young birds range there.
picking up much food under perfectly
natural conditions ana fitting them
selves for the wild life in the open to
which they will eventually come, ii
they live For all their wild blood and
the opportunities offered for escape,
most of the young birds recognize the
coop where the mother bantam is con-
fined as home. and they come back to
it at night and at feeding time. \
few as they have grown older have
seemed wilder and ranged more wide
ly Thus half a hundred or so have
liberated themselves, stocking the COW
ers of the region round about.
As with young chicks of the domes-
tic hon, the yosnig quail have to be
carefully fed for - time on suitable
food. They thrive on meaty maggots
ants eggs. the dried product Of the
tropical ant. which, is now to be had
commercially, rotated with sour milk
curds mixed with some cereal such as
shredded wheat bread crumbs or
pheasant meal. Sometimes dare say
by way of dessert5-they are given a
nlilk-ind eggs cust5rd. also contain
ingq soaked cereal AS they get bigger
fine. cracked grain suits them with
berries in season weed seeds, and in
the fall whole apples. The skin of these
is slightly cut and the birds hollow. out
the pulp without further assistance.
Thus royalty fed and allowed freedom
they thrive excepting for unfortunate
accidents. one of the most unfortu-
nate of these is a prowling cat. but
these are trapped or shot by the at
endants before they can do much DAM.
ase. one flock of young birds thus
ranging free was so scattered by a cat
that its members We're believed to be
lost. But the eat was killed and the
quail came back. Birds that find plen-
ty of cover, brush, grain and thick
grass remain rather tame, but those
which range in the open fields soon be-
come as shy as wild ones.
"Blacl-hepd," which is dreaded by
turkey rasers and which is so fatal
to ruffed grouse that none are sue
cessfully reared in captivity, is not
nartiClllarly troublesome in the raising