20 GAME-BIRDS 



the presence of a pair of semicircular dark brown bands extending 

 from the ear-coverts downwards to meet in the middle line of the 

 throat where they form a black patch at their junction ; these bands 

 not being acquired, however, till the second year. Hens are superior 

 in size to cocks, and lack the aforesaid throat-bands ; and birds of the 

 year agree in colouring with hens : chicks are of the usual buff, with a 

 tinge of chestnut on head and back, and a narrow dark stripe down 

 the middle of the two latter. 



Quail are skulking birds, associating in parties known as " bevies," 

 and much addicted to the covert afforded by standing crops or stubbles 

 of grain, such as wheat, millet, and maize ; but they may also be 

 found on the bare ground, where their colouring renders them incon- 

 spicuous ; when they rise they fly with a low rapid flight. The note 

 is described as diick-a-lick. Some difference of opinion prevails as to 

 whether the quail is pol}'gamous or monogamous ; but in many instances, 

 at any rate, the cocks have but one hen each, and it is probably only 

 when females are specially numerous that a departure from this practice 

 is made. The cocks fight to a great extent among themselves. Both 

 grain and insects form the food of the species. The quail is a late breeder ; 

 the eggs, of which there are usually from eight to a dozen, although 

 occasionally as many as a score, not being laid as a rule before Ma\-, 

 in a nest which is a mere hollow among the grass or young crops with 

 a few leaves and stalks scattered above its floor. The eggs are of 

 various shades of creamy white, yellowish buff, or buff and greenish 

 yellow, marked with specks and spots or blotches of variable size of 

 deep olive -brown, and reddish and blackish brown. The British 

 Museum posses.ses clutches from Sheffield and the Cambridgeshire 

 fens. Incubation lasts three weeks, and there is usually one brood 

 in the season. 



In Ireland quail-shooting lasts from September 20 till January 10, 

 elsewhere from August i till March i. A belief prevails in Greece 

 that every bevy of quail is headed by a corncrake ; whether or no 

 there is any truth in this, it is certain that the two species generally 

 arrive on their breeding-grounds about the same time, and likewise 

 depart more or less nearly together. 



In 1898 a Virginian quail {Orfj'x, or Colinus, virgiuiayitis) was shot 

 at Bala, North Wales, while others were reported from the neighbour- 

 hood. Whence they came is a mystery. 



