THE COMMON QUAIL. 369 



near to land ; for they often alight on the sails, invariably 

 by night, and swamp the vessels, &c." 



" This species," says a French naturalist, " is probably 

 the most productive of all winged creatures ; and it could 

 not well be otherwise, or it would be unable to withstand 

 the war of extermination declared against it by human 

 beings and birds of prey. One may get an idea of the 

 prodigious number of victims which the simple crossing of 

 the Mediterranean costs the species by two well known 

 and often quoted facts. The Bishop of Capri, a wretched 

 islet scarcely a league in length, which lies at the entrance 

 of the Bay of Naples, nsed to clear a net revenue of 

 25,000 francs a year (1,000Z.) by his Quails. This 

 sum represents 150,000 Quails at the lowest computation. 

 In certain islands of the Archipelago, and j)arts of the 

 coast of the Peloponnese, the inhabitants, men and women, 

 have no other occupation during two months of the year 

 than that of collecting the Quails which are showered on 

 them from heaven, picking and cleaning them, salting them 

 (' they spread them all abroad for themselves ') and pack- 

 ing them away in casks for transportation to the principal 

 markets of the Levant ; that is to say, the migration of 

 Quails is to this part of Greece what the migration of 

 herrings is to Holland and Scotland. The Quail-catchers 

 arrive at the shore a fortnight in advance, and every man 

 numbers his ground to avoid disputes. The Quail arrives 

 in France from Africa early in May, and takes its departure 

 towards the end of August." 



Another French author sa3^s, " Like Rails, Woodcocks, 

 Snipes, and many of the waders, the Quail, when it 

 travels towards the sea shore, flies only in the night. It 

 leaves the lands, where it has passed the day, about the 

 dusk of the evening, and settles again with the dawn of the 

 morning." Not unfrequently, while performing their 

 transit, they become weary, and alight on vessels, or fall 

 into the sea, and are drowned. " Being at a small town on 



B ii 



