PERDIX COTURNIX. 559 



by the ancients ; the fighting of quails being still a pastime with 

 the Chinese. It is a summer migrant in the south of Britain, 

 rarer in the north'; arrives in April, leaves in October ; same 

 food and habits as the partridge. Its nest, a slight hollow in a 

 field of young wheat or grass ; eggs, from twelve to twenty, 

 some beautifully coloured like the ptarmigans, 1J by J 1G . It 

 quietly comes like the corncrake, scatters, and keeps out of 

 sight ; hence more plentiful than is supposed. It breeds about 

 St Andrews. A nest was got near Cupar with five eggs in a 

 grass field, July 2nd, 1862. I have a male stuffed, killed by 

 the reaping-machine near Kingsbarns during harvest, 1863. On 

 June 15th, 1887, a female was got dead under the telegraph 

 wire at Eden, its neck broken ; there were sixteen eggs in its 

 ovary. Another was got on August 31st, 1892, also lying dead 

 on the line near Eden. So there is no doubt they breed here, 

 but their chief home is the warmer climates of Africa and Asia. 

 Some authors say they are polygamous, but they pair like the 

 partridge, only the male takes no part in the hatching. Selby 

 says they are " rare in the midland and northern counties of 

 England ;" and Macgillivray says, " It is seldom they are now 

 met with in Scotland" — hardly correct. Great numbers are 

 killed during migration. A hundred thousand have been killed 

 in one day on the coast of Naples, and in Sicily their autumnal 

 arrival is looked for as a source of sport and profit, the shores 

 being lined with people carrying guns for the purpose ; and in 

 France great numbers are caught in nets by a call resembling 

 their cry. But the killing of quails for food is an old story, for 

 the children of Israel in their " exodus" from Egypt were 

 indebted to the quails, when " the whole congregation of the 

 children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the 

 wilderness, saying, Would to God we had died by the hand of 

 the Lord in Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots, when we did 

 eat bread to the full ! for ye have brought us forth into this 

 wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." "And it 

 came to pass that at even the quails came up and covered the 

 camp, and in the morning the dew, like hoar frost, lay round 

 about the host" (the manna or bread), " which the Lord gave 

 them to eat," along with quails. (See Exodus xvi. 13.) And 

 when they were with " The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord" 

 grumbling for food " There went forth a wind from the Lord 

 and brought quails from the sea and let them fall by the camp, 

 as it were a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on 

 the other side round about the camp, as it were two cubits high 



