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black lines. The quills black ; the tail-coverts bluish 

 ash ; the front black ; a double white line over the 

 eye ; the throat white with some black streaks ; 

 spots of white, russet and black on the head and neck ; 

 the breast reddish white, with cross streaks of black ; 

 the belly white with several spots of black ; and the 

 flanks red with small oval white spots, surrounded 

 with rings of black. The bill black at the tip and 

 reddish at the base, and the feet brown. It is a small 

 species, the length being only between eight and nine 

 inches. This species has been brought alive to 

 Britain, has bred readily, and is domesticated in 

 some parts of England, in Suffolk we believe, or at 

 all events it is understood as being permanently 

 established there. 



Califarnian Quail (Ortyx Callfornica). This spe- 

 cies, as the trivial name imports, is from the west 

 coast of North America ; but it is also found in 

 Mexico, and appears to have been described under 

 different names. The colours are various shades 

 of brown, slate blue, and ash grey, picked out with 

 red, black and white, and finely mixed and con- 

 trasted. The male has a black crest on the top of the 

 head, part of the feathers of which curl forward. The 

 female is without the crest, and has all the colours 

 less bright. 



Many other species or varieties have been named, 

 id it is probable that many more may yet be dis- 

 co veied in a country so wide and wild, and so well 

 adapted to the habits of such birds, as North America. 

 But so little is known respecting them, and they 

 appear to differ so little in manners, that they can- 

 not be made interesting in a popular point of view. 



QUAILS (Coturmx). The quails are smaller in 

 size than the partridges, have the bill slender, no red 

 membrane over the eye, and no spurs on the tarsi. 

 In other respects, they bear a considerable resem- 

 blance to the partridges. The true quails are all 

 natives of the eastern continents, and they are not 

 found in the very cold latitudes. Although a more 

 minute race than the partridges, the quails are more 

 active birds, more discursive and prone to migration. 

 They seem to admit of two divisions, the quails, 

 properly so culled, which have hind toes more or less 

 produced ; and those which have no hind toe, and 

 which, for that reason, Temminck called Hemipodius, 

 or halt-footed. There is one structural character in 

 the quails which is worthy of being borne in mind, as 

 it explains, in part, why they are much more dis- 

 cursive in their habits than the partridges, and others 

 of the family, or indeed than most of the gallinidie. 

 They have the first quill of the wings as long as the 

 others, and thus their wings being lees rounded are 

 better adapted for long flight. 



Common Quail (Coturnix major) has the upper 

 part mottled with brown and grey, with a whitish or 

 reddish streak along the middle of each feather. The 

 top of the head is mottled with black and red, and 

 marked with three longitudinal stripes of brownish 

 white, the two lateral ones passing nearly over the 

 eyes. The throat is black ; the breast russet ; the 

 belly and thighs whitish ; the bill black, and the feet 

 flesh-colour. The length of the full grown male is 

 between seven and a half and eight inches. The 

 female bus the breast white, spotted with black. 

 Quails are subject to considerable varieties of colour, 

 some being found much darker than the average, and 

 others nearly all over yellowish white. The young 

 of the year resemble the female, after which they vary 



considerably in colour. Food and confinement have 

 a good deal of effect upon their colours ; for when 

 they are kept under restraint and fed upon hempseed 

 all their colours merge in one uniform brown. They 

 are much longer winged in proportion to their size 

 than most of the gallinida?, the extent of the wings 

 being about double the length of the body, while in 

 the others it rarely exceeds one and a half. The 

 common quail is found pretty generally throughout 

 continental Europe, ranging nearly as far to the north 

 as Lapland. It is also found in Asia, and is abund- 

 ant in the south of Siberia, but is not met with in that 

 country so far north as the shores of the Arctic Sea, or 

 even in such high latitudes as it occurs in some parts 

 of Europe. In China, and the countries farther to 

 the southward, the common quail is very abundant, 

 and there are also other species. They extend unto 

 the eastern islands, and are very abundant in some 

 parts of Africa. Though quails are more accustomed 

 to running than flying, and although, for the most 

 part, they are incapable of remaining for any length 

 of time on the wing, without experiencing lassitude 

 and fatigue, it is nevertheless certain that they under- 

 take pretty extensive migrations, and in immense 

 flocks, passing from the colder to the warmer latitudes 

 in autumn, and retracing their way in spring ; and 

 there is reason to believe that their passage, notwith- 

 standing the opinion of Colonel Montague, usually 

 takes place in the course of the night, for they are 

 accustomed to sleep, or at least to repose, during the 

 greater part of the day, hiding themselves in the 

 tallest grass, where they are sometimes run in upon 

 by dogs before they are flushed. They are met with 

 in many parts of this island, but seldom in any con- 

 siderable numbers. They leave us in August or 

 September, are supposed to winter in Africa, and 

 return early in the spring. On their arrival at Alex- 

 andria, such multitudes of them are exposed for sale, 

 that the crews of merchants vessels are fed on them, 

 and complaints have been laid at the consul's office 

 by mariners against their captains, for giving them 

 nothing but quails to eat. They have been known, 

 when having wind and weather in their favour, to 

 perform a flight of fifty leagues across the Black Sea 

 in the course of a night. On the western coast of 

 the kingdom of Naples, in the vicinity of Nettuno, 

 sometimes quails have appeared in such prodigious 

 quantities, that a hundred thousand have been caught 

 in one day, and within the limited space of three or 

 four miles. The principal part of them were con- 

 veyed to Rome, where they are in great request, and 

 fetch a very high price. Along the shores of Bovena, 

 especially on the lands belonging to the bishop of 

 Frejus that border on the sea, they alight in such 

 vast numbers in the spring, that for the first two or 

 three days they are occasionally found so exhausted 

 as to be caught with the hand. In some parts of the 

 south of Russia they so much abound, that during 

 the periods of their migration they are taken by 

 thousands, and are sent in casks to Petersburgh and 

 Moscow. The English import not a few from France 

 for the table, all of them males. They fight fiercely 

 for the females, whom they abandon when incubation 

 commences. The hen bird scrapes a hole in the 

 ground, generally in a corn field, and consigns 

 to it from eight to twenty eggs, of a bright green 

 colour, dotted with minute blotches of brown or 

 black. The incubation lasts three weeks ; and 

 the young, which are produced covered with down, 



