AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 315 



kept properly clean, and become very tame, but are 

 always very pugnacious among themselves at the 

 pairing-season. Several of this species have at 

 various times come aboard of our yacht in the 

 Mediterranean, and one, which was found on deck 

 off the coast of Cyprus, in April 1875, lived peace- 

 fully for some weeks with a Turtle-Dove which was 

 caught in the same manner, but killed two or three 

 of its own species ; this individual lived in good 

 health and condition for several years in a small cage. 

 The flight of the Quail is straight and fast. They 

 are very easy to shoot in the open, and seldom fly to 

 any great distance, but are difficult to flush a second 

 time, and run and squat in a manner which often 

 baffles the best of pointers. The best dogs for Quail- 

 shooting are, in our opinion, small close-questing 

 spaniels. Large numbers of Quails are taken in the 

 Danubian provinces with Sparrow-Hawks, which are 

 caught and trained for this especial purpose, and 

 restored to liberty after the passage of their " quarry." 



125. LAND-RAIL. 



Crex pratensis. 



At p. 425 of Morton's ' Natural History ' of our 

 county we find the following words : " the Rail 

 that has its name, as some suppose, from Royale, 

 because it is a Royal or a Princely Dish, we pretty 

 often meet with, particularly in the Fields about 

 Thengford, Northampton, Halston, and Rowel ; 

 which yet is so rare that Turner saith, he never saw 

 nor heard of it, but in Northumberland." On this 

 text we may say that whatever may have been the 



