QUAIL 



COMMON QUAIL. 



PLATE CXLIV. 



Coturnix eommunis, .... BONNATERRE. 



Perdix coturnix LATHAM. JENYNS. 



Tetrao coturnix, LINNAEUS. 



THIS migrant is thinly distributed in England in the 

 summer. 



For a nest the female scrapes out a small hollow in 

 the ground, into which she collects a few bits of dry grass, 

 straw, clover, and such like. It is generally placed in the 

 open amongst growing crops or herbage. She alone sits, 

 and very closely, on the eggs, but the male assists her 

 in the care of the young. 



The eggs are yellowish white, orange-coloured white, 

 or greenish, blotted or speckled with brown. They vary 

 much in number, from six to twelve, or even, it is said, 

 twenty, though generally ten ; a bevy of ten birds has 

 been known to be reared. Incubation lasts about three 

 weeks. Two broods are sometimes reared in the season 

 The eggs are not laid till June, or even July. The young 

 follow the dam as soon as they are hatched. 



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