4 GREAT BUSTARD. - lil 
158. QUAIL—(Coturniz vulgaris). 
The quail is believed, in some rare instances, to stay with us 
all the year, but is usually only a summer visitant, not coming in 
any great numbers. In some countries its migratory hosts are 
so great that one hundred thousand are said to have been taken 
inaday. In its appearance, the quail strongly reminds one of 
the Partridge, and suggests the idea that itself is only a diminu- 
tive bird of that species. They do not, however, pair, and their 
nests are met with in many parts of the kingdom. Two years 
since it was believed that at least two broods were reared on 
certain lands in Moorsholm, in North Yorkshire. A _ small 
depression in the ground is made, or found, and loosely lined 
with bits of grass and dry stalks. Seven to ten, or possibly yet 
more eggs, are laid, presenting much variety of appearance, but 
usually of a faint cream-coloured ground, mottled and clouded in 
some cases with red brown, and in others spotted with dark 
hrown spots, some of considerable size.—Fig. 8, plate VI. 
TV.—STRUTHIONID &. 
159. GREAT BUSTARD—(0Ofis tarda). 
This noble bird, once abundant enough on our wide plains and 
wolds in England, is now, I fear, almost extinct among us, as so 
far as I am aware no very recent* capture of it has been an- 
nounced. It used, before the gun became so common and*so 
fatal to birds of much interest to the ornithologist or others, to 
be customarily pursued with greyhounds. These birds do not 
pair, and their nest is said to be a mere natural saucer-shaped 
hole in the bare ground. The eggs are seldom more than two, 
or at most three, in number, and are of an olive-green ground, 
* Since this was written, one mstance has occurred, 
