MUSICAL ENTRIES A PLEA. 131 



as the birds are hurrying on. When caught they are 

 seldom fit for table, but they take kindly to captivity, 

 and soon get very fat under proper treatment. Tens of 

 thousands of this pretty little bird, something like a 

 miniature Partridge in appearance, are exported alive to 

 this country in long flat cages, where they are kept until 

 the demands of the market bring their death-warrant. 

 We often pity them in their narrow little cages, so 

 different to the boundless freedom they once enjoyed, 

 bobbing about so restlessly, and only waiting some 

 gourmand's arrival to order so many dozen for the grand 

 dinner party he is about to give. Perchance their end 

 is a more noble one, and they figure on the tables of 

 some grand banquet where the fate of nations and the 

 destiny of races are discussed over their savoury little 

 bodies. The Quail is not much of a musician, but his 

 merry whistle in the spring-time is full of harmony, and 

 sounds particularly pleasant amongst the meadow grass 

 and the growing corn, in which he makes his nest. In 

 autumn the enormous flocks of this bird that pass 

 Gibraltar, or are met with crossing the Mediterranean, 

 are past all belief. They are coming from the corn-lands 

 and steppe country of Central Europe, and will not 

 stay their flight until they have crossed the Great Desert 

 and the whole length of Africa, and reach Damara Land 

 and the Cape Coast Colony, where they spend the 

 winter. Our next musical entree is the plump little 



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