194 BIKDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



from this it appears that, whereas in 1865 and 1866 

 there were killed respectively twenty and twenty-six 

 birds, in no year since has the number exceeded nine, 

 and, as stated above, since 1874 only one bird has 

 been seen altogether. The causes of this seem rather 

 obscure, but I believe that the practice of mowing grass 

 by machines, which shave so close to the ground that 

 the sitting birds are invariably destroyed, is an im- 

 portant one, and I am confirmed in this opinion by Mr. 

 T. Jackson, who says that he has killed many single 

 ones in this way, and that once he took off the heads of 

 three in one day. Its eggs have been taken over the 

 whole of the Fylde, and Mr. E. Davenport tells me 

 that at Unsworth, near Bury, it bred annually for a 

 long time. The nest has often been found in the 

 neighbourhood of Southport, and C. P. A., a correspon- 

 dent of the Field of September 28, 1867, states that, 

 presumably in the year named, a brood of seven young 

 was reared on the Bickershaw estates, nearWigan, being 

 the first time the species had been known to breed in 

 that locality. In Furness it is rare, though here also it 

 is stated to have once been not uncommon ("Birds of 

 Walney," 1883, W. A. Durnford). It is usually shot in 

 greatest numbers in September and October, but has 

 often occurred up to December and January, and it is 

 very likely that some individuals remain the whole 

 winter in the vicinity of the breeding-ground. When 

 disturbed by shooting-parties, the Quail, which sits very 

 close, rises singly, and not in bevies, and Mr. Hornby 

 has only met with one instance in exception to this, 

 when ten birds once rose together. The eggs appear to 

 be laid in May. 



[Mr. K. J. Howard writes :— " During 1885 the Quail 

 was heard in five different places on Lord Lilford's 



