COMMON QUAIL. 107 



blotched with oil-green, and, except in form, are 

 somewhat similar to those of the snipe. 



In France the Quail is very abundant ; and, be- 

 sides supplying the markets of that country, thou- 

 sands are imported alive by the London poulterers, 

 and fattened for the luxury of the metropolis. They 

 are taken by nets, into which they are decoyed by 

 imitating their call. On the coast of Italy and 

 Sicily, and all the Greek islands, they arrive at 

 certain seasons in immense numbers. An hundred 

 thousand are said to have been taken in one day. 

 They are run after during the flight like the pas- 

 senger pigeons of America, and a harvest is ga- 

 thered when the numbers are greatest. In Sicily, 

 crowds of all ages and degrees assemble on the 

 shore. The number of boats is even greater than 

 the crowd ; and enviable is the lot of the idle ap- 

 prentice, who, with a borrowed musket or pistol, 

 no matter how unsafe, has gained possession of the 

 farthest rock, where there is but room for himself 

 and his dog, w r hich he has fed with bread only, all 

 the year round, for these delightful days, and 

 which sits, in as happy expectation as himself, for 

 the arrival of the Quails. Ortygia was named 

 from them ; and so abundant were they on Capri, 

 an island at the entrance of the Gulf of Naples, 

 that they formed the principal revenue of the bishop 

 of the island. From twelve to sixty thousand were 

 annually taken ; and one year the capture amounted 

 to one hundred and sixty thousand. In China, 

 and in many of the eastern islands, and Malacca, 



