QUAIL. — Coturnix cominiinU. 



It is rather curious, that the males precede the females by several days, and are 

 consequently more persecuted hy the professional fowlers. 



The male bird does not jDair like the partridge, but takes to himself a plurality of 

 wives, and, as is generally the case with such polygamists, has to tight many desperate 

 battles with others of its own sex. Although ill provided with weapons of offence, the 

 Quail is as fiery and courageous a bird as the gamecock ; and in Eastern countries is 

 largely kept and trained for the purpose of fighting prize-battles, on the result of which 

 the owners stake large sums. The note of the male is a kind of shrill whistle, which is 

 only heard during the breeding season. 



The nest of the Quail is of no better construction than that of the partridge, being 

 merely a few bits of hay and dried herbage gathered into some little depression in tlie 

 bare ground, and generally entrusted under the protection of corn-stalks, clover, or a tuft 

 of rank grass. The number of eggs is generally aliout fourteen or fifteen, and their colour 

 is buffy white^ marked with patches or speckles of brown. The young are able to run 

 about almost immediately after they leave the eggs, and are led by their parent to thi'ir 

 food. However wild they may be, many of these birds are killed by a very sim])le 

 device. The sportsman having marked down a covey of Quails, walks round them in 

 circles sulficiently large not to alarm them, and as he returns towards the spot whence 

 lie started, he strikes off for another circle of less diametei". By describing a gradually 

 lessening spiral, he drives all the Quails together in the middle, where they pack closely 

 and suffer themselves to be killed in nundiers. 



The colouring of the Quail is simple, but pleasing. The head is dark brown, except a 

 streak of pale brown over the eyes, and another on the toj) of the head jiassing towards 

 the nape of the neck. Tlie whole upper surface is brown streaked with yellower brown, 

 and the feathers with lighter shafts. The chin and throat are white, and around the throat 

 run two semicircular bands of dark brown, their points reaching as high as the ear-coverts, 

 and having a black ]iatch in fnuit. The breast is rather ])ale but warm brown, variegated 

 by the polished straw colour of the shafts, and the nniiainder of the under surface is 

 ochry white dee])ening into chestnut on (he Hanks. 1'he female may br known liy the 

 absence of the two dark semicircles on the throiit, which even in (he male are not awpiired 



