r season,
they should be caught with a net. This can be done by placing the nets
in such a way that the birds will run into them about the brush heaps,
in which they are fond of taking refuge. Skill and shrewdness are
needed to catch them in this way, and, perhaps, it cannot be done while
they are shot at so much and are made so shy; but the time will come
when the netting of quail will be regarded as rare sport in America, as
hawking or fox hunting is in England.

When the birds are caught their heads should be snipped off as you do
those of domestic fowls, or in some other way that is as painless as
possible. According to this plan not so many birds can be secured, it
is true, but it would be well to let the quail become more abundant in
our country, for in certain seasons of the year they destroy certain
kinds of insects that do much harm to the grain. Besides, they are
such sweet and innocent birds that all of us like to see them scuttling
along by the roadside, and listen to their musical calling in the
clover fields--"Bob white! bob white!" Then, too, if they were allowed
to become tame and plentiful, we might sometimes have the luxury of
quail's eggs on our tables.

A BIRD'S EDUCATION*

*Reprinted by permission from "Forest and Stream."

So far as regards the recent discussion as to how animals learn,
whether by instinct or instruction, my study of birds leads me to take
a middle position; perhaps I would better say to take sides with both
parties. Birds acquire knowledge partly by instinct and partly by
tutelage, and the same is no doubt true of all other animals. This
statement will be borne out by several concrete cases.

Some years ago I made a number of experiments in rearing young birds
taken as early as possible from the nest. Among them were meadowlarks,
red-winged blackbirds, brown thrashers, blue jays, wood thrushes,
catbirds, flickers, red-headed woodpeckers, and several other species.
Nearly all of them were secured some time before they were naturally
ready to leave their natal places. Without any instruction from
parents or older birds they soon left the nests I had improvised for
them, hopped about on the cage floor for a while, and presently
insisted on clambering upon the perches, to which they clung in the
regulation way. Indeed, I noted again and again that the impulse to
seek a perch was so strong that the young birds seemed to be moved to
it by an imperative command.