THE QUAIL 69 



THE QUAIL 

 [W. P. PYCRAFT] 



Time was when the occurrence of the quail within our midst was 

 a matter which called for no particular comment. To-day the fact 

 is eagerly recorded, not only in the newspapers but in our ornitho- 

 logical journals, for the quail is going, if it has not gone, the way of the 

 bustard and the bittern, and a dozen or so other species. Our grand- 

 fathers can record pleasant days spent in shooting quail, and they 

 have, indirectly, established the fact that in its habits it resembled the 

 partridge (Perdix perdix}, affecting the same haunts, and preferring 

 the same food, and to this scanty information but little more is to be 

 added. And this because, keen though many of our forebears were on 

 the subject, at any rate of our native game-birds, their interest lay in 

 their pursuit, and not in the contemplation of their domestic economy, 

 and we who have followed them have done little better. 



Great as are the gaps in our knowledge of this the smallest of 

 our game-birds, the facts that have most impressed themselves upon 

 us are just those wherein it contrasts most strongly with its congeners. 

 In the first place, though displaying but feeble powers of flight, 

 inferior even to those of the redlegged-partridge, it is the only 

 migratory member of our native game-birds. And while more or 

 fewer birds remained with us the year round, the majority left us 

 in October to return with the snipe in May. We may be reminded 

 that the journeyings of the quail are no more wonderful than those of 

 the landrail. And this is true, but we are laying emphasis not so 

 much on its limited powers of flight as on its migrations, for the 

 wanderings of our "common" quail and one or two nearly related 

 species are, it must be remembered, remarkable among the game- 

 birds, which are else, all the world over, a sedentary race. 



The migratory habits, and the peculiarities in plumage, further 



