COMMON QUAIL. 415 



ticular food is probably also the cause of the darker tone of 

 colour which pervades these birds as compared with those 

 that are killed in a wild and more natural state. The flesh 

 is delicate, and very little inferior to that of the Landrail ; 

 it is accordingly very much in request, and in London in 

 particular, during the season, that is, from May to 

 August, the consumption is large. I have found, on in- 

 quiry, that three thousand dozens have been purchased of 

 the dealers by the London poulterers in one season. 



Though very like a Partridge, except in size, and resem- 

 bling those birds also in several of their habits, Quails do 

 not pair. The males are polygamous, and have a shrill 

 whistling note, which is generally repeated three times in 

 quick succession, and they are said to lose their voice when 

 the breeding-season is over, as they are not heard to ex- 

 ercise their notes afterwards. The female scrapes out a 

 small cavity on the ground, into which she collects a few 

 bits of dry grass, straw, or clover stalks; she lays from 

 seven to twelve eggs ; nesting among wheat generally, but 

 sometimes in a piece of clover or grass. The eggs are 

 of a yellowish or dull orange-coloured white, blotched or 

 speckled with umber brown ; one inch one line in length 

 by eleven lines in breadth. Upon these she sits about 

 three weeks ; the young are able to follow her soon after 

 they are excluded from the shell, and learn to feed on 

 seeds, grain, insects, and green leaves. Many are found 

 and killed in wheat stubbles by Partridge shooters in the 

 month of September ; they fly quick, but generally straight 

 and low, and are difficult to raise a second time when they 

 have been once flushed and alarmed. The greater portion 

 leave this country in October. 



An interesting account of our Quail is included by 

 Colonel Sykes in the paper which has been already referred 

 to on " The Quails and Hemipodii of India," as published 

 in the second volume of the Transactions of the Zoolo- 



