PERDICID.'E. 



270 



frequently lured within reach of the fowler by the imitation of the 

 female's note on a quail-pipe ; sometimes by the voice, but the per- 

 former must be a perfect mimic. 



The ardent and pugnacious nature of these birda was taken advantage 

 of by the ancients, and quail-fighting was a favourite amusement of 

 the Grteks and Romans, as it still is of the Chinese. Their food con- 

 sists of grain and seeds, insects, and slugs or worms. They are fattened 

 for the table on hemp-seed principally. Pennant is too general when 

 he says that the ancients never ate these birds, supposing them to 

 have been unwholesome, as they were said to feed on hellebore. 

 Pliny indeed (' Nat Hist.,' X. xxiii) says they were not eaten on 

 account of their feeding on poisonous seeds ; and also because they were 

 subject to the epilepsy, or falling sickness ; but this vulgarism did 

 not, we suspect, banish so delicious a bird from the tables of the better 

 informed. (Athenaeus, ' Deipn.,' ix. xlvii ; ibid, xlviii. ; xi. cxiv.) 



The Quail is polygamous ; and the nest of the female, if nest it may 

 be called for it is little more than a hole scratched in the ground, 

 generally in some field of green wheat contains, in this country, 

 from six to twelve or fourteen bluish leeky-green or oil-green eggs. 

 On the Continent, as many as eighteen or twenty have been found ; 

 but here six or eight is the usual number of a Bevy, as the brood is 

 called. Covey is the term applied to a family of partridges. 



Quails are noted by Hasselquiat aa having been seen by him in 

 Galilee. The Quail of the Israelites (Tetrao hraelitarum, Hasselq.) 

 was considered by him to be a new species of Tetrao : he found it at the 

 Jordan, and in the wilderness near the mountains of Arabia Petnuo. 

 Col. Sykes states that the Common Quail is the identical species on 

 which the Israelites fed. This is perhaps not the place to discuss 

 such subjects, but it may be necessary to remind the reader that 

 Rudbeck asserted that the living food which " at even came up and 

 covered the camp" (Exod., xvi. 13) was a Flying-Fish. We dismiss this 

 at once. Ludolph, who thought that the animal was a locust, is, at 

 first sight, more worthy of attention ; but the word "\xv (sheer, ' flesh ') 

 (Psalm Ixxviii. 27) could hardly have been applied to locusts. Then, 

 according to good authorities (Bochart ; Harris), the Hebrew word in 

 Exodus is Vw (tdav, Arabice 'selwee' or 'selvai,' a quail), and the 

 Septuagint and Vulgate both lead to the conclusion that it was certainly 

 a bird, and almost certainly a quail. See further Scheuchzer, ' Phy sica 

 Sacra' (vol. i. p. 173) where the Hebrew is translated upon both sides 

 of the page ' coturnix,' as it is at p. 1 SO ; but the plate referred to, 

 tab. clxi, represents the Israelites collecting locusts, and beneath the 

 plate is printed " Exod. xvi 13, Selavim, Locusts;." In the very next 

 plate however, tab. clxii., representing many birds, we have the same 

 chapter and verse quoted, with the following translation : " Selavim. 

 Coturnices, aliaeque." Fig. 2 of that plate is no bad representation of 

 a quail. There can be little doubt that quails formed the seasonable 

 supply ; and, if this be admitted, we have, as CoL Sykes observes, proof 

 of the perpetuation of an instinct (migration) through upwards of 3300 

 years, the fact recorded having occurred 1491 years before Christ. 



Col. Sykes, in his valuable paper ' On the Quails and Hemipodii of 

 India ' (' Zool. Trans.,' vol. ii), in which he states that he found the 

 tongue and the cieca of birds to be of considerable importance in 

 indicating affinities or dissimilarities between genera, notices C. dotty- 

 liionant, C. te^tUit, U. erythroryncha,C. Anjuunduh, and C. Pentah. 



C. Argwmda.li, the Kock-Quail of Dukhun (Deccan), " is readily 

 distinguished by the numerous transverse narrow black bars upon the 

 breast ; but the young males and the females want these bars, and 

 vary so much in the markings on the back, that with those disposed 

 to manufacture species from plumage alone, the eleven specimens before 

 me from Dukhun would furnish at least four new species." (Sykes.) 





Ortyx (Stephens). Bill short, very high ; culmen much elevated 

 and curved, gonys thick and ascending ; nostrils large, naked. Tarsus 

 smooth ; lateral toes unequal ; no spurs. Tail moderate. 



The species are found in America only. 



0. Virginian-us, Virginian or Maryland Quail. This, the Quail of 

 the inhabitants of New England, the Partridge of the Pennsylvanians, 

 has the bill black ; line over the eye down the neck and whole chin 

 pure white, bounded by a descending band of black, which spreads 

 broadly over the throat; eye dark hazel; crown, neck, and upper part 

 of breast, red brown ; sides of the neck spotted with white and black 

 on a reddish brown ground ; back, scapulars, and leaser coverts, red 

 brown, intermixed with ash and sprinkled with black ; tertials edged 

 with yellowish white ; wings plain dusky ; lower part of the breast and 

 belly pale yellowish white, beautifully marked with numerous curving 

 spots or arrow-heads of black ; tail ash, sprinkled with reddish-browu; 

 legs very pale ash. Length nine inches ; extent fourteen inches (male). 

 The female diners in having the chin and sides of the head yellowish 

 brown. (Wilson.) 



- 



Rock.Quail (Cotiiruir Argoondah}. (Sykcs.) 



The floah is perfectly white. Col. Sykea says that this is the species 

 . for Quail fights by the natives, and not 0. dactylisonani or 0. 

 textffu. 



Viiginian Quail (Ortyjc rirginianua). 



Wilson states that this well-known bird is a general inhabitant of 

 North America, from the northern parts of Canada and Nova Scotia 

 to the extremity of the peninsula of Florida ; and that it was seen in 

 the neighbourhood of the Great Osage village, in the interior of 

 Louisiana. They are, he adds, numerous in Kentucky and Ohio, and 

 he quotes Pennant for their introduction into the island of Jamaica, 

 where they throve greatly, breeding twice in the year ; he also quotes 

 Captain Henderson as authority for their abundance near Balize, 

 on the Bay of Honduras ; but there is something in the style of 

 Wilson that makes it almost unpardonable not to give his own words, 

 and, in justice to that most graphic describer and the reader, we shall 

 permit him to go on with his interesting history of tins bird in his 

 own way . "They rarely," continues Wilson, "frequent the forest, and 

 are most numerous in the vicinity of well-cultivated plantations where 

 grain is in plenty. They however occasionally seek shelter in the 

 woods, perching on the branches or secreting among the brush-wood ; 

 but they are found most usually in open fields, or along fences shel- 

 tered by thickets of briars. Where they are not too much persecuted 

 by the sportsmen, they become almost half domesticated ; approach 

 the barn, particularly in winter, and sometimes in that severe season 

 mix with the poultry to glean up a subsistence. They remain with us 

 the whole year, and often suffer extremely by long hard winters and 

 deep sno-vs. At such times the arts of man combine with the incle- 

 mency of the season for their destruction. To the ravages of the gun 

 are added others of a more insidious kind. Traps are placed on 

 almost every plantation, in such places as they are known to frequent. 

 These are formed of lath or thinly-split sticks, somewhat in the shape 

 of an obtuse cone, laced together with cord, having a small hole at the 

 top, with a sliding lid to take out the game by. This is supported by 

 the common figure-4 trigger, and grain is scattered below and leading 

 to the place. By this contrivance ten or fifteen have sometimes been 

 taken at a time. These are sometimes brought alive to market, and 

 occasionally bought up by sportsmen, who, if the season be very severe, 

 sometimes preserve and feed them till spring, when they are humanely 

 turned out to their native fields again, to be put to death at some 

 future time eecundum artem. Between the months of August and 

 March great numbers of these birds are brought to the market of 

 Philadelphia, where they are sold from 12 to 18 cents, a-piece. 



" The Quail begins to build early in May. The nest is made on the 

 ground, usually at the bottom of a thick tuft of grass that shelters 

 and conceals it. The materials are leaves and fine dry grass in con- 

 siderable quantity. It is well covered above, and an opening left on 

 one side for entrance. The female lays from 15 to 24 eggs, of a pure 

 white without any spots. The time of incubation has been stated to 

 me by various persons at four weeks when the eggs are placed under 

 the domestic hen. The young leave the nest as soon as they are freed 

 from the shell, and are conducted about in search of food by the 

 female, are guided by her voice, which at that time resembles the 

 twittering of young chickens, and sheltered by her wiugs in the same 



