558 THE COMMON QUAIL. 



and Suffolk, and spread over the southern counties of England. 

 I am not aware of its being found in Fife, so I need not cobble 

 up the history of a bird I never saw here. Mr Hewitson says it 

 makes more of a nest than the other — of dry grass ; eggs, from 

 ten to twelve ; Temminck says, from fifteen to eighteen, larger 

 than the last ; some of them spotted and marked with reddish- 

 brown on a cream-coloured ground, something like those of the 

 black grouse, but less — 1 J by 1 J. Its general colour is reddish- 

 grey ; but takes its name more from its bill, legs, and feet being 

 bright red ; its iris and naked space above the eyes also red. 

 The male is distinguished by having large blunt spurs on the 

 tarsi, and a white collar on the throat and cheeks, with a black 

 band from the bill to the eye and round the collar, spotted with 

 white. Unlike the other, it prefers waste, heathy ground, to corn 

 fields ; is wilder, and gives less sport, as it runs before the dogs ; 

 the covey — dispersing and rising one after another ; difficult to 

 shoot, which may have induced David to say to King Saul, who 

 was hunting him, " In the wilderness of Engedi, upon the rocks 

 of the wild goats" (after he had left the " Cave of Adullam" 

 with " every one that was in distress, and every one that was 

 in debt, and every one that was discontented,") "After whom is 

 the King of Israel come out ? after whom dost thou pursue ? 

 — after a dead dog — after a flea 1" " The King of Israel is come 

 out to seek a flea, as ivhen one doth hunt a partridge in the 

 mountains" Or, as Jeremiah says, " As the partridge sitteth on 

 eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches, and not by 

 right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end 

 shall be a fool." It is larger than the last (14 by 21 inches), 

 and is accused of driving it away — as the black rat has been 

 driven away by the more hurtful brown one ; a pity, as the red 

 partridge is not so good for food as the common one. 



The Common Quail. 



Perdix Coturnix. (Lath.) Tetrao Coturnia. (Linn.) 



" His cocks do win the battle still of mine, 

 And his quails ever beat mine, inhoop'd at odds." 



— Antony and Cleopatra. 



This is the smallest of our scrapers, only 8 inches by 14, yet 

 it fights like a game-cock, though without spurs, and thus used 



