COMMON QUAIL. 235 



ranean, their arrival is watched with anxiety, and prodigious 

 slaughter is made among them, by means of nets and guns, 

 the greater part of the male population being on the alert, and 

 a kind of jubilee kept, similar to that described by Wilson, 

 Audubon, and Cooper, as held in America, when the migra- 

 tory Pigeons extend their dense masses over the country. Ac- 

 cording to an eye-witness, " enviable is the lot of the idle ap- 

 prentice, who, with a borrowed old musket or pistol, no matter 

 how unsafe, has gained possession of the farthest accessible 

 rock, where there is but room for himself and his dog, which 

 he has fed with bread only all the year round for these delight- 

 ful days, and which sits in as happy expectation as himself for 

 the arrival of the Quails.""* They perform their flights in the 

 evening, or by moonlight, or early in the morning, and rest 

 during the day, when it is necessary for them to procure food. 

 As they advance northward, some remain in all the districts 

 over which they pass, until at length they are all dispersed, when 

 they commence the important arrangements for rearing their 

 broods. The males are extremely pugnacious, and indeed are in 

 some countries trained for fighting, so that when they meet each 

 other in their haunts they engage in desperate combats; and it is 

 asserted that they are of a roving disposition, and in fact poly- 

 gamous, which however seems doubtful, for during the breed- 

 ing season each female seems to have a mate, who, although he 

 leaves her to incubate, yet joins her when she leads forth her 

 young, of which he assists in taking charge. The food of the 

 Quail consists of seeds, herbage, and occasionally insects ; and 

 its haunts are chiefly the cultivated fields and pastures, where it 

 continues during the season, never entering the woods or perch- 

 ing. The nest is a slight hollow scraped in the loose soil, with 

 some dry blades, on which it deposits its numerous eggs, which 

 sometimes amount to twenty. They are of a regular oval form, 

 having a ground-colour varying from yellowish- white to reddish- 

 yellow or greenish, and marked all over with brown spots and 

 blotches, in which respect they more resemble those of the 

 Grouse than of the Partridges. The males utter a loud shrill 

 cry, composed of several notes, which have been considered as 

 constituting a kind of song, in consequence of which these birds 



