CALIFORNIAN QUAIL. 437 



from a letter to Mr. Henry Denny,^ of tlie Philosophical 

 Hall at Leeds, from the late Rev. John Burrell, Rector of 

 Letheringsett, near Holt. After stating that two speci- 

 mens, killed in his neighbourhood, had recently come into 

 his possession, Mr. Burrell adds, "It is now (November 

 11th, 1825,) quite a colonized creature, and numerous 

 are the covies, which report says that the poachers 

 cannot destroy, its manners are so watchful and shy of 

 man." I may here state, however, that the supposed 

 nest of this species, " containing numerous white eggs," 

 recorded by Yarrell and Hewitson, on the authority of 

 Mr. Lubbock, to have been found in a marsh at Barton, 

 and of which Mr. Salmon had sj)ecimens, did not belong 

 to this species, but were, as Mr. Newton informs me, 

 merely varieties of the eggs of the common partridge. 

 They were sold at first under the name of teal's eggs. 

 Mr. Henson, of Cambridge, is said to have possessed one 

 of these birds, killed at Holkham, and Mr. Thornhill, 

 of Riddlesworth, has also a pair obtained, soon after 

 they were turned off, in the same neighbourhood. A 

 pair or two of the Californian Quail, Lophortyx 

 californicus (Shaw), were also turned out a few years 

 back in the neighbourhood of Attleborough, but have 

 since died off or been shot down. A fine adult male, 

 with a perfect crest, was killed in a turnip field near that 

 town, in October, 1858. 



* This letter, with a few introductory remarks, was published 

 by Mr. Denny in the 13th vol. of the " Annals and Magazine of Nat. 

 Hist." (1844). 



