07 i the Common Quail.



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cultivation, the Quail has become less numerous as a breeding

species here than it was formerly. Nevertheless, a certain num¬

ber annually visit us, and the call-note of the male, which has

been described as sounding like “ wet-your-lips,” may not in¬

frequently be heard on quiet evenings in the Spring in our

Southern and Eastern Counties.


Of skulking habits and small size, it is easily hidden by

quite a small tuft of grass, and it is rarely seen until perhaps a

few are shot in September. But, as a rule, the majority of Quail

have commenced their southward migration before much shoot¬

ing commences. It is chiefly on the northward Spring migration,

when they are travelling with all speed to their nesting-homes,

that Quails are caught in vast numbers all along the coasts of

the Mediterranean. Long nets are employed, and either the first

few live birds caught are put in small cages behind the nets to

act as decoys, or else Quail calls are used to attract the passing

birds. The Quails are caught in hundreds, hurriedly packed into

the boxes before-mentioned and despatched to the large European

towns. As many as 160,000 are said to have been captured in

one season in the island of Capri alone.


But the Quail has not only the net to fear, for both along

the coasts and on the islands of the Mediterranean every man

who possesses a gun brings it out when the Quail arrive, and

constant shooting is indulged in so long as these birds are in

evidence.


In spite of all these dangers to contend with, however, the

Quail is still a very common species, though probably not nearly

so numerous as in the days of the exodus of the Israelites.


The food of the Quail consists of the seeds of many kinds

of weeds and small insects of all sorts.


The nest consists merely of a few bits of hay or small

sticks drawn together into a hollow scratched out under some

thick tuft of grass. The clutch varies from six to ten or even

twelve, the eggs being about an inch in length, of a creamy

white colour, blotched and speckled, especially at the larger end

with umbre-brown. Incubation lasts for about twenty-one days,

the young following the mother from the nest a few hours after

hatching. The male bird appears to take no further notice of



