2o6 The Irish Naturalist. [August, 



May, the fact of a continuous drought having characterized 

 the preceding 8 weeks might in several ways do much towards 

 influencing its choice. It appears, then, that 



In 1892 the rainfall for 8 weeks ending May nth was 1*63 ; 

 „ 1893 „ „ „ May 15th „ 1-65 ; 



„ 1896 „ „ „ May 17th „ 1-22; 



and in nearly every other year of the series, including '87, the 

 heaviest of these rainfalls was surpassed in April alone. The 

 only exceptions were 1884, when, however, the 6 weeks 

 ending May 4th were sufficient to produce 2*45 inches, and 

 1890, when the same 6 weeks produced 4-20. The three years 

 in which I have found the Quail (apparently breeding) at 

 Ballyhyland therefore easily distance all other recent years in 

 the severity of their droughts for the period precedent to the 

 middle of May. 



I do not for a moment suggest that extraordinary drought 

 attracts the Quails ; it appears to me far more probable that 

 the consequent sparseness of vegetation in their Continental 

 resorts may at such times drive the birds further afield in 

 search of localities where cover and food are more obtainable. 

 If Mr. Howard Saunders is right in including slugs' among 

 the principal ingredients of the Quail's diet, an additional 

 reason for its spreading further in dry seasons is at once 

 apparent. 



One can scarcely suppose that any of the ordinary requisites 

 of Quail-life are lacking in Ireland in a normal summer, con- 

 sidering how common the bird formerly was here, many as a 

 rule even staying the winter : during which season, as we 

 learn from Thompson, seven-eighths of its food consisted 

 of seeds of such invariably plentiful plants as Chickweed 

 (Stellaria media) and different species of Dock, Plantain, and 

 Knot-grass. True, reclamation of waste land may have re- 

 duced its facilities for enjoying this island as a winter home ; 

 but the discontinuance of its summer visits remains an 

 apparently insoluble puzzle. The diminished cultivation of 

 wheat is sometimes assigned as the cause ; to this view, how- 

 ever, there are several objections, besides the fact that in my 



* Thompson found slugs in only one of thirty Quails whose crops he 

 examined ; these birds, however, had all been shot in winter or early 

 spring. The one Quail had eaten 11 specimens of that highly mischievous 

 slug, Agriolimax agresUs. 



