MIGRATION OF QUAILS. 26? 



in dry spots, and to remove the young to places 

 more adapted to their habits. 



Quails, although migratory birds, breed to a 

 great extent in this country, and appear to have 

 favourite localities. In one district in Essex, 

 numerous eggs have been found during the mow- 

 ing season, and as many as sixty couples of these 

 birds have been killed in the course of a few days' 

 shooting on one manor in that county. In many 

 other parts of England it is very seldom indeed 

 that a quail is found. 



It is an interesting fact respecting the Quail, 

 and one clearly proved by Mr. Yarrell, in his in- 

 teresting work on " British Birds," that it was 

 the food of the Israelites in the wilderness. The 

 common quail (Coturnix dactylisonans) is the 

 only species that migrates in enormous multitudes, 

 or indeed that migrates at all. The instinct of 

 the bird was, therefore, made use of by Almighty 

 God to supply the wants of His famishing peo- 

 ple ; " and it affords," says Mr. Yarrell, " a proof 

 of the perpetuation of an instinct through a period 

 of 3300 years/' It does not pervade a whole spe- 

 cies, but that part of a species existing within 

 certain geographical limits; an instinct charac- 

 terised by a peculiarity, which modern observers 

 have also noticed, of making their migratory 

 flight by night. We read in the sixteenth chap- 

 ter of Exodus, "And it came to pass that at 



