THE NEST OF THE QUAIL. 



483 



covered the camp." Mr. Yarrell suggests, that the object of this nocturnal journeying may be 

 to save the defenceless birds from the attacks of the numerous birds of prey, which would 

 probably assail them were they to travel during the daytime. There are, however, larger and 

 more powerful birds, which need no such safeguard, and yet are in the habit of travelling by 

 night, as well as the Quail. 



It is rather curious, that the males precede the females by several days, and are conse- 

 quently more persecuted by the professional fowlers. 



The male bird does not pair like the partridge, but takes to himself a plurality of wives, 

 and, as is generally the case with such polygamists, has to fight many desperate battles with 



QUAIL. Coturnix communit. 



others of its own sex. Although ill provided with weapons of offence, the Quail is as fiery 

 and courageous a bird as the gamecock ; and in Eastern countries is largely kept and trained 

 for the purpose of fighting prize-battles, on the result of which the owners stake large sums. 

 The note of the male is a kind of shrill whistle, which is only heard during the breeding 

 season. 



The nest of the Quail is of no better construction than that of the partridge, being merely 

 a few bits of hay and dried herbage gathered into some little depression in the bare ground, 

 and generally entrusted under the protection of corn-stalks, clover, or a tuft of rank grass. 

 The number of eggs is generally about fourteen or fifteen, and their color is buff y-white, marked 

 with patches or speckles of brown. The young are able to run about almost immediately after 

 they leave the eggs, and are led by their parent to their food. However wild they may be, 

 many of these birds are killed by a very simple device. The sportsman having marked down 

 a covey of Quails, walks round them in circles sufficiently large not to alarm them, and as he 

 returns towards the spot whence ho started, he strikes off for another circle of less diameter. 

 By describing a gradually lessening spiral, he drives all the Quails together in the middle, 

 where they pack closely and suffer themselves to be killed in numbers. 



The coloring of the Quail is simple, but pleasing. The head is dark brown, except a 



