A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 



721 



b. — Game Birds, etc. 



The American Quail or Bobiohite. (Colinus Virginianus (L.) Les.) 



Figure 58. 



The early writers do not mention any bird of this sort, therefore 

 it is altogether probable that the Quails said to have been found here 

 in the wild state more than sixty years ago were introduced by some 

 enterprising person at an earlier period, but of this no record is 

 known to me. Possibly some governor or army officer fond of shoot- 

 ing game may have done this.* But it seems to have become extinct 



Figure 58. — American Quail or Bob- 

 white (Colinus Virginianus (L.) 

 Les.) 



Figure 59. — Mocking Bird (Mimus poly- 

 glottos (L.) Brewer= M.Carolinensis 

 Cab.) Both from Webster's Inter- 

 national Dictionary. 



here before 1840. Mr. Hurdis, during his entire residence, 1840 to 

 1855, did not meet with it. It was subsequently introduced again, 

 by Mr. Richard Darrell, about 1858 or 59, according to Capt. Reid, 

 and having been better protected by the modern game laws it has 

 become common for the past twenty-five years or more. It not 

 infrequently comes into the poultry yards and feeds with the 

 chickens, as I have personally observed. 



The English Pheasant and Partridge were introduced in 1877 by 

 Governor Robert M. Laffan, according to Hurdis (p. 407), but 

 whether either of them long survived I do not know ; they certainly 

 had not become common in 1901, if present at all, which I doubt, 



* References to the birds of Bermuda are practically wholly lacking in the 

 literature from 1650 to 1850. 

 Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XI. 46 Sept., 1902. 



