THE VIRGINIAN QUAIL OR PARTRIDGE. 125 



become very domesticated, but always desert in the 

 first spring, when the season of incubation com- 

 mences. * 



Among the many methods taken to capture these 

 birds, one related by Audubon seems eminently suc- 

 cessful. A cylindrical net is used thirty or forty 

 feet in height, and about two in diameter, except at 

 the mouth, where it is wider. This is fixed to the 

 ground with the mouth open, and two additional 

 pieces of net are fixed at each side, to enlarge as it 

 were the entrance* Into this the birds are driven 

 by a number of persons on horseback, who surround 

 the covey when discovered. Fifteen or twenty par- 

 tridges are thus often caught at one driving, and 

 sometimes many hundreds during the day.-)- 



The Virginian partridge has been attempted to be 

 introduced in several parts of the European conti- 

 nent, but we are uncertain with what success. They 

 have also been tried in some of the English counties. 



Our next Plate exhibits one of the most beautiful 

 of the genus 



* Wilson's North American Ornithology. f Audubon. 



