QUAIL 755 



This last epithet was given from the peculiar three-syllabled call- 

 note of the cock, which has been grotesquely rendered in several 

 European languages, and in some parts of Gi'eat Britain the species 

 is popularly known by the nickname of " Wet-my-lips " or " Wet- 

 my-feet." The Quail varies somewhat in colour, and the variation 

 is rather individual than attributable to local causes ; but gener- 

 ally the plumage may be described as reddish-brown above, almost 

 each feather being transversely patched with dark brown inter- 

 rupted by a longitudinal stripe of light buff; the head is dai'k 

 brown above, with three longitudinal streaks of ochreous-white ; 

 the sides of the breast and flanks are reddish-brown, distinctly 

 striped Avith ochreous-white ; the rest of the lower parts are pale 

 buff, clouded with a darker shade, and passing into white on the 

 belly. The cock, besides being generally brighter in tint, not un- 

 frequently has the chin and a double throat-band of reddish or 

 blackish-brown, which marks are wanting in the hen, whose breast 

 is usually spotted. Quails breed on the ground, without making 

 much of a nest, and lay from nine to fifteen eggs of a yellowish- 

 Avhite, blotched and spotted with dark brown. Essentially migra- 

 tory by nature,-^ in March and April they cross the Mediterranean 

 from the south on the way to their breeding-homes in large bands, 

 but these are said to be as nothing compared with the enormous 

 flights that emigrate from Europe towards the end of September. 

 During both migrations immense numbers are netted for the 

 market, since they are almost universally esteemed as delicate 

 meat. On capture they are placed in long, narrow and low cages, 

 darkened to prevent the prisoners from fighting, and, though they 

 are often so much crowded as to be hardly able to stir, the loss by 

 death that ensues is but trifling. Food, usually millet or hemp- 

 seed, and water are supplied in troughs hung in front, and thus 

 these little birds are transported by tens of thousands from the 

 shores of the Mediterranean for consumption in the most opulent 

 and populous cities of Europe. The flesh of Quails caught in 

 spring commonly proves dry and indifferent, but that of those 

 taken in autumn, especially when they have been kept long enough 

 to grow fat, as they quickly do, is excellent. In no part of the 

 British Islands at present do Quails exist in sufficient numbers to 

 be the especial object of sport, though there are many places in 

 which a few, and in some seasons more than a few, yearly fall to 

 the gun. When made to take wing, which is not always easily 

 done, they rise with great speed, but on such occasions they seldom 

 fly far, and no one seeing them only thus would be inclined to 

 credit them with the power of extensive migration that they 

 possess, though this is often overtaxed, and the birds in their 



^ Yet not a few Quails pass the winter in the northern hemisphere and even 

 in Britain, and many more in southern Europe. 



