134 THE BIRDS OF OXFORDSHIRE. 



spring ; one wliicli I heard calling' in a clover field at Great 

 Bourton on several evenings in May, was the only one I had 

 notice of. In September that year we flushed two from some 

 standing oats, in the same field where we saw the single bird 

 seven years previously, and others were subsequently found at 

 Adderbury, Barford, Sibford, Hook Norton, ' Edward's Field ' 

 (Standlake), Burford, Cowley, and at one or two spots on 

 the Northamptonshire boundary ; about thirty or forty being 

 killed, and others seen. In a letter from the Earl of Ducie to 

 Lord Walsingham, communicated by the latter to the Ibis 

 (1886, p. loi), it is stated that the keeper, early in September, 

 put up at least thirty in one day on the Sarsden estate (where 

 there were generally two or three bevies in the season), 

 and that Quails were killed in unusual numbers that year 

 in the district between Chipping Norton and Oxford. 



The Quail arrives here in May, the 15th being the earliest 

 date of which I have notice, and remains sometimes until 

 October, its stay being affectecl by the state of the harvest ; 

 the partiality of this species to standing corn inducing it 

 to linger in late seasons. From the difficulty of flushing- 

 Quails they no doubt often escape observation, and even 

 where put up they are occasionally mistaken for ' squeaker ' 

 Partridges, and allowed to escape, their rapid and direct flight 

 being unnoticed until the bird is out of range. 



Two instances of the Quail having been found in Oxford- 

 shire during the winter were communicated by Mr. Goatley to 

 the Messrs. Matthews, who also mention occurrences on the 

 10th November, 1846, and the 9th December, 1848 [Zoologist, 

 p. 2535). A clutch of nine fresh eggs was taken in Sep- 

 tember, 1886, near Standlake, not far from Witney, whence 

 a bird, shot in severe weather on the I5tli of the following 

 January, was sent up to Oxford Market ; another was shot in 

 that neighbourhood about the end of the same month, as I am 

 informed by Mr. A. H. Macpherson, who, near Nuneham, saw 

 two Quails, which passed close to him, in severe weather, on 



