118 THE COMMON QUAIL. 



THE COMMON QUAIL 



Seems to be generally distributed over tbe old 

 world, though, in the south of Europe, it is perhaps 

 as abundant as elsewhere. In Britain they may now 

 he termed only an occasional visitant, the numbers 

 of those which arrive to breed having considerably de- 

 creased, and they are to be met with certainty only in 

 some of the warmer southern or midland counties of 

 England. Thirty years since they were tolerably 

 common and regular in their returns ; and even in 

 the south of Scotland a few broods were occasional- 

 ly to be found. In these same districts they are 

 now very uncertain. We have known of broods 

 twice, and occasionally have shot a straggler appa- 

 rently on its way to the south. They are extremely 

 difficult to flush after the first time. The nest is 

 made by the female, but, like the partridges, the 

 eggs are deposited almost on the bare ground ; these, 

 also, unlike the uniform tint which we find prevailing 

 in those of the true partridges, are deeply blotched 

 with oil-green, and, except inform, are somewhat si- 

 milar to those of the snipe. In France they are 

 very abundant ; and besides supplying the markets of 

 that country, thousands 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 



