THE COMMON QUAIL. 119 



by imitating their call. On the coast of Italy and Si- 

 cily, 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 passenger pigeons of 

 America, and a harvest is gathered when the numbers 

 are greatest. In Sicily, crowds of all ages and degrees 

 assemble on the shore. The number of boats is even 

 greater ; and enviable is the lot of the idle appren- 

 tice, who, with a borrowed musket or pistol, no mat- 

 ter how unsafe, has gained possession of the farthest 

 rock, where there is but room for himself and his 

 dog, which 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 en- 

 trance 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 ; anc* 

 one year the capture amounted to one hundred ana 

 sixty thousand. In China, and in many of the east- 

 ern islands, and Malacca, they are also very abund- 

 ant, performing regular migrations from the interior 

 to the coast. Here they are domesticated along with 

 a small species of Ortygis, and trained to fight. 

 Large stakes are risked upon the result, as in the 

 cockpit. They are also used by the Chinese to warm 

 their hands in cold weather, their bodies being thought 

 * Gait's Travels. 



