Excerpt from The Avicultural Magazine, 1898, Vol. 4
Mr. Low obtained them in January, 1873. and he states that the native name of the species is "Burong puyu puyu."
Dr. Russ informs us that since 1870, single pairs of the Chinese Quail have been occasionally imported; that it is much sought after for the bird-room, and has 011 several occasions been bred; that according to Mr. E. Berin, who indeed was the first to breed it, it is shy and timid, needs a place of retirement, one of which he provided in the form of a straw covering leaning against the back wall of the cage or bird-rooin. "At the breeding-season the male and female arc continually together, the former being gentle and watchful; both build the nest; even- disturbance is to be avoided.
From the experience of this and other breeders, Dr. Russ gathers that the laying consists of from four to seven clear brownish, generally dark dotted eggs. Incubation lasts from sixteen to eighteen days. The uestling-down is yellowish, and the young acquire their full colouring when three months old.
Early in the present year, a good many pairs of this Quail came into the London market, and were offered to the public at prices even lower than those noted by Dr. Russ. Two pairs were offered to me, and I was so delighted with the colouring of these quaint little things that I gladly added them to my collection. My experience has not altogether coincided with that of Mr. Berin, as I shall now show.
When first introduced into a tolerably large aviary I found the Chinese Quails exceedingly nervous, so that when I entered the aviary they would fly recklessly upwards, striking their heads against the wire netting under the glass roofing and falling heavily to the earth ; but 110 sooner did they perceive that my intentions were never hostile, than they contented themselves with merely running out of my way or leaping in a surprising manner to a raised bank of earth, bounded in front by a wall nearly two feet high from the sanded floor.
At one end of the bank above noted, I provided a place of retirement by sticking a row of fir-twigs into the earth about six inches from the back wall : behind this partial screen the Quails often sat down during the day-time, sometimes scratching a shallow depression in the soil and dragging in a little hay and a few feathers ; but at other times they settled down all together in an open corner of the aviary upon the sand, and at night they frequently went to roost in another open corner upon a cemented wall.
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