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Quails in Italy can be had than the fact that the netting of the birds 

 has been discontinued in many localities, where formerly the practice 

 used to be carried on, and was a source of considerable profit. The 

 falling off in the number of Quails is no doubt principally due to 

 netting, and were it possible, by means of international action, to 

 introduce measures to prevent this wholesale process of extermination 

 throughout the Mediterranean generally, it would indeed be a matter 

 for congratulation. 



Egypt appears to be the country in which most of this netting 

 is now carried on, and Marseilles the port to which most consign- 

 ments of Quails are despatched, these sometimes amounting to some 

 hundreds of thousands of birds. In Italy the taking of Quails is 

 prohibited after a certain date, and I have known large consignments 

 confiscated, and the birds distributed among the hospitals. 



Quails are taken in other ways besides by stretching nets across 

 their line of passage ; one of the most curious of these, if not the most 

 lucrative, being that of torch-light netting at night, which is carried 

 on in many parts of Southern Italy. A sharp-eyed man or boy, armed 

 with a kind of landing net, and with a flaming torch stuck in his hat, 

 walks quietly over some bare plain or other locality where the Quails 

 are known to be in the habit of alighting on their arrival, and on 

 seeing a Quail on the ground he claps his net over it, the poor bird 

 being too dazed by the strong light to attempt to use its wings. I 

 once accompanied one of these Quail-catchers at Sorrento, starting 

 off at the inconvenient hour of 2 a.m. ; but the wind had not been 

 favourable for the passage of the birds in that particular district, and 

 I saw few taken, though enough to learn the process. 



In its habits the Quail cannot be called gregarious, for although 

 large numbers of the birds, when on migration, may often be found 

 together in the same field or on the same hill-side, they are not in 

 bevies or flocks, but singly or in pairs. It is, however, probably 

 not unusual for the species to migrate in flocks, and I have occa- 

 sionally, when going out shooting at an exceptionally early hour 

 and before the sun was up, met with as many as twenty or thirty 

 individuals together, these packs probably consisting of birds that 

 have just arrived, and not yet dispersed or settled down for the day. 

 If disturbed before they have settled down, the birds are restless, and 

 on rising will fly far ; but as the day draws on they become very 

 sluggish and disinclined to move, allowing themselves to be almost 



