298 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
son and so the common quail was on offer by the hundred. These 
were kept alive in shallow crates and were sold at nine shillings a 
dozen. After crossing the Mediterranean Sea the quail arrive on 
the sandy Egyptian coastline exhausted. For a while they have 
little energy for flight, so run inland seeking cover and food. It 
was then that thousands of quail found themselves trapped under 
cunningly placed nets, and the annual slaughter used to be 
terrific, though it has to some extent been brought under control 
in recent years. 
I bought three dozen of these quail—giving them one by one, 
freshly killed, to the smaller carnivores, i.e., servals, genets, and 
the caracal. After feeding exclusively for some weeks on beef this 
came as a welcome change of food for these creatures, for fresh 
blood, bones, and entrails all play an important part in maintain- 
ing them in perfect condition. In most cases the entire quail was 
eaten, even legs, beak and feathers, the consumption of the last 
indicating how necessary it is for the smaller carnivores to have 
roughage in the way of fur or feather. 
We passed Cape Finisterre and entered the Bay of Biscay, the 
City of Calcutta cutting along like a destroyer, but speed has its 
snags. In a few minutes we ran into a swell running from the 
forward starboard side. Being fully laden with cargo we were low 
in the water and I sensed trouble when the head wind, combined 
with our speed and the swell, whipped some spray over the star- 
board side of the after well-deck where all the animals were 
quartered. Suddenly a big wave crashed over the crates on that 
side of the ship followed by a bigger one which flooded the whole 
deck to the depth of a foot, and smashed one of the cheetah 
crates. I grabbed the animal and got him clear and sent a message 
to the bridge to ask the captain if he would alter course while the 
crew shifted the animals on the starboard side to safety on the 
hatches. There were four leopards and Straw the lion here, and 
the former were definitely upset at all this commotion, but Straw 
remained as complacent as a sphinx while sea water crashed on 
deck and flooded his cage. It was fortunate that the trouble was 
not on the port side where Dicksi and Girlie were quartered, as 
their crates could never have been man-handled. 
