[Old Professer]

Then what was the dirt-digging all about?

I can't quite see the picture you are drawing.

[yarddog]

It is a little hard to explain, at least for me.

The box is basically lying flat on the ground. The open ended coffee can is used as an entrance.

I guess you could just dig a hole under the edge of the box but I suppose there needs to be a length of tunnel to keep the quail from seeing the exit. They go in simply following the trail of corn. Once in, they can't see the end of the hole they came in through. I guess they aren't smart enough to figure it out and simply try to get out through the slits in the box.