QUAIL 755 
This last epithet was given from the peculiar three-syllabled call- 
note of the cock, which has been grotesquely rendered in several 
European languages, and in some parts of Great Britain the species 
is popularly known by the nickname of “ Wet-my-lips” or “ Wet- 
my-feet.” The Quail varies somewhat in colour, and the variation 
is rather individual than attributable to local causes; but gener- 
ally the plumage may be described as reddish-brown above, almost 
each feather being transversely patched with dark brown inter- 
rupted by a longitudinal stripe of light buff; the head is dark 
brown above, with three longitudinal streaks of ochreous-white ; 
the sides of the breast and flanks are reddish-brown, distinctly 
striped with ochreous-white ; the rest of the lower parts are pale 
buff, clouded with a darker shade, and passing into white on the 
belly. The cock, besides being generally brighter in tint, not un- 
frequently has the chin and a double throat-band of reddish or 
blackish-brown, which marks are wanting in the hen, whose breast 
is usually spotted. Quails breed on the ground, without making 
much of a nest, and lay from nine to fifteen eggs of a yellowish- 
white, blotched and spotted with dark brown. Essentially migra- 
tory by nature,! in March and April they cross the Mediterranean 
from the south on the way to their breeding-homes in large bands, 
but these are said to be as nothing compared with the enormous 
flights that emigrate from Europe towards the end of September. 
During both migrations*immense numbers are netted for the 
market, since they are almost universally esteemed as delicate 
meat. On capture they are placed in long, narrow and low cages, 
darkened to prevent the prisoners from fighting, and, though they 
are often so much crowded as to be hardly able to stir, the loss by 
death that ensues is but trifling. Food, usually millet or hemp- 
seed, and water are supplied in troughs hung in front, and thus 
these little birds are transported by tens of thousands from the 
shores of the Mediterranean for consumption in the most opulent 
and populous cities of Europe. The flesh of Quails caught in 
spring commonly proves dry and indifferent, but that of those 
taken in autumn, especially when they have been kept long enough 
to grow fat, as they quickly do, is excellent. In no part of the 
British Islands at present do Quails exist in sufficient numbers to 
be the especial object of sport, though there are many places in 
which a few, and in some seasons more than a few, yearly fall to 
the gun. When made to take wing, which is not always easily 
done, they rise with great speed, but on such occasions they seldom 
fly far, and no one seeing them only thus would be inclined to 
credit them with the power of extensive migration that they 
possess, though this is often overtaxed, and the birds in their 
1 Yet not a few Quails pass the winter in the northern hemisphere and even 
in Britain, and many more in southern Europe. 
