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Birds. 



held a distinguished place at the tables of the luxurious 

 we have an old distich : 



" If the Partridge had the woodcock's thigh, 

 Twould be the best bird that e'er did fly." 



THE QUAIL, (Cotumix da,dylisonans,') 



Is a small bird, being in length no more than seven 

 inches. The colour of the breast is a dirty pale yellow, 

 and the throat has a little mixture of red : the head is 

 black, and the body and wings have black stripes upon 

 a hazel-coloured ground. Its habits and manner of 

 living resemble those of the partridge, and it is either 

 caught in nets by decoy birds, or shot by the help of 

 the setting-dog, its call being easily imitated oy tapping 

 two pieces of copper one against another. The flesh of 

 the Quail is very luscious, and next in flavour to that of 

 the partridge. Quails are birds of passage, the only 

 peculiarity in which they differ from all other of the 

 poultry kind ; and such prodigious numbers have some- 

 times appeared on the western coast of the kingdom of 

 Naples, that one hundred thousand have been caught in 



