QUAIL SHOOTING. 167 



their being now so scarce in this country, especially as 

 they are common in the northern departments of France, 

 and when the shooting has commenced there you may 

 find plenty of quails in the various market towns, par- 

 ticularly at Boulogne, and as they are birds of passage, 

 one would naturally conclude, like other birds that 

 migrate, they would find their way across the British 

 channel. It is well known that the shepherds in this 

 country used formerly to catch a great number of quails 

 with the quail-j^ipe.* 



The miracle performed by the Almighty in sending 

 such swarms of quails as food to the Israelites in the 

 desert is thus stated in Numbers, chap. xi. v. 3 1 : " And 

 there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought 

 quails fi-om the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as 

 it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a 

 day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, 

 and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the 

 earth." 



During the many years I shot in various parts of 



* The Quail-pipe, to call the female, is made of a small leather piirse, 

 two fingers wide and four fingers long, in the shape of a pear. This is 

 stuffed half full of horse hair, and at the end of it is placed a small 

 whistle, made of the bone of a rabbit's leg, about two inches long, and 

 the end formed like a flageolet, with a little soft clay. This is the end 

 fastened into the purse ; the other is closed up with the same sulistance, 

 only a hole is opened with a pin, to make it give a distinct and clear 

 sound. To make this soimd it must be held full in the palm of the 

 hand, with one of the fingers placed over the top ; then the purse is to 

 be pressed, and the finger is to shake over the middle of it to 

 moderate the sound it gives into a sort of shake. This is the most 

 useful call, for it imitates the note of the hen quail, and seldom fails to 

 bring a cock to the net if there be one near the place. In the 

 "Spectator" we read : "A dish of wild fowl furnished conversation for 

 the rest of the dinner, which concluded with a late iuveutiou of Will 

 Wimble's for improving the quail-pipe. 

 U 4 



