COMMON QUAIL. 531 



[An example of the BARBARY PARTRIDGE (Caccabis petrosa, 

 Gm.) is recorded in the " Handbook of Vertebrate Fauna 

 of Yorkshire," as having been procured near Beverley about 

 1869, but further investigation proves that it was an escaped 

 pinioned bird.] 



COMMON QUAIL. 



Coturnix communis (Bonnat^). 



Summer visitant, breeding in limited numbers in Holderness and 

 in the Western Ainsty. Has been met with occasionally in winter. 

 Less abundant than formerly. 



The first mention of the Quail is in the provision at 

 the great Cawood banquet in 1466, given in honour of Arch- 

 bishop Nevell, thus : " Quayles a hundred dozen " (Leland's 

 Collectanea). It also figures in the Northumberland House- 

 hold Book in 1512, at Earl Percy's castles of Wressill and 

 Lekinfield, "Quayles" being amongst the birds to be provided 

 " for my Lordes owne Mees at Pryncipall Feestes and at ijd. 

 a pece at moste." 



Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : 



Coturnix dactylisonans. The Quail Is occasionally heard about 

 Sheffield ; formerly it bred in the vicinity of Halifax, and occasionally 

 does near York, though much less common than formerly ; rare near 

 Leeds, but occasionally met with at Scarcroft, Killingbeck, and Chur- 

 well. W. Eddison says " On some occasions I have shot a number 

 of them in the cornfields, near Huddersfield, discerning them by their 

 peculiar call in the springtime, about when the rye begins to shoot." 

 Dr. Farrar observes " This species was very uncertain in its appearance, 

 but far more abundant in 1832 than, to my observation, either at an 

 earlier or later period." A. Strickland remarks " From accounts 

 I have heard we might suppose Quails used to be numerous in this 

 district, as I have been told they used to be taken in nets here formerly, 

 but they are now seldom met with ; a few may be heard at times 

 among the corn in summer, or met with in turnips in winter. 



The Quail is a summer visitant, arriving in May with the 

 latest of the spring migrants, and was formerly a fairly 

 abundant species ; Arthur Strickland informed the naturalists 



