QUAIL SHOOTING. Ill 



sum produced by the annual visits of these birds : 

 they have been kno^vn to have been taken, at one 

 season, to the number of a hundred and fifty thou- 

 sand. 



In Ireland, the farmers on the coast, south of 

 Strangford Loch, are very successful in the capture 

 of quails. We have known them to bring in five 

 and six brace of these delicate birds, the produce 

 of the day's sport. Jardine says, in 1836 a gentle- 

 man shot, near Belfast Bay, in one day, ten brace of 

 quails. 



The nest of the quail is made by the female ; its 

 eggs are deposited on the bare ground : they are 

 somewhat similar in appearance to those of the snipe, 

 being deeply marked with olive-green, but are of dif- 

 ferent shape. We subjoin Jardine 's account of this 

 bird: — "The geographical range of the quail is of 

 great extent, reaching northward to Russia and Scan- 

 dinavia, found in the intermediate countries of tem- 

 perate heat, and abounding in continental India and 

 Africa. We possess specimens, which do not mate- 

 rially differ from each other, from Madeira, Alpine 

 India, the plains of India, China, Cape of Good 

 Hope, and Southern Europe. A specimen, shot at 

 Jardine Hall in autumn, has the crown nearly black, 

 the feathers edged with pale chesnut; streaks of ochre 

 yellow run over each eye ; and the centre space 

 between the eyes, and bill, and auriculars, are ches- 

 nut. Colour of the upper parts black, having the 

 shafts and a lanceolate mark in the centre of each 



