QUAIL. 89 



then remain quiet for two or three hours, resorting to 

 some favourite hiding-place, such as a thicket, turnip- 

 field, corn-field, fallow-field, grass, or clover-field ; they 

 may often be found by the side of the trunk of a fallen 

 tree, or in the branches of a tree top, or on the edge of a 

 wood, or in a bush-pasture. 



When feeding they may generally be found in wheat, 

 sometimes buckwheat fields, in turnip or corn-fields, along 

 the hedges, by fences streaked with brush and grass as 

 they return from their feeding grounds. 



During the month of December they go to bushy 

 swamps that have become frozen over, and along- streams 

 lined by thickets. 



About three o'clock they run about and begin to feed, 

 and then may be found upon the same grounds where 

 they were found in the morning. 



Enemies. — Quail have many enemies, such as the mink, 

 the fox, the hawks, but the skunk is the greatest enemy to 

 quail, except the very cold winters with much snow. The 

 skunk is a great egg-destroyer, and is doubtless the cause 

 of so many nests being broken up early in the season. 

 The males predominate in numbers, probably in conse- 

 quence of the females so often falling a prey to vermin 

 when sitting. If sportsmen would make a dead-set 



