3o8 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



name of nest, is made amongst the growing corn, or 

 sometimes in the meadow grass, and the eggs, as is usual 

 with this order of birds, are large in number. Some 

 nests contain as many as twenty, others only sixteen, 

 while a few nests will contain but eight or twelve. I 

 strongly suspect, however, that two females lay in those 

 nests which contain so many eggs. The eggs are very 

 handsome ones, being a yellowish-olive in ground tint, 

 blotched and spotted with rich brown of various tints : 

 they are about the size of a Blackbird's ^gg. The young 

 are brought to maturity under the care of the female 

 birds, where two females lay in one nest the birds divid- 

 ing the brood between them. Quails, like Partridges, 

 are seldom stirring in the middle of the day, only feeding 

 in the morning and evening, and their food is similar to 

 that of the Partridge. 



The migrations of the Quails are a salient feature in 

 their life history. They winter in Africa and other 

 southern lands, coming northwards in the spring in in- 

 credible numbers ; and, what is rather singular, is, the 

 male birds precede the females several days, sometimes 

 a week', or even more. These birds return with unerring 

 certainty to their haunts of the previous season. 



