QUAILS IN MALTA AND SICILY. 169 



I did not entirely recover until I found myself at sea in 

 the latter end of October, on a shooting excursion to the 

 island of Sardinia, the particulars of which I shall here- 

 • after relate. On one occasion whilst shooting at Malta 

 I saw a considera])le flight of quails arrive and land 

 near me — one within a few yards in a tuft of grass. As 

 he appeared much exhausted, I approached the spot 

 carefully and put my hat over him, and succeeded in 

 capturing him. He Avas in good condition. In the 

 pursuit of my quail shooting, I was sometimes obliged 

 to follow them into the cotton-fields, which I was really 

 sorry to do, as at this season the cotton heads burst, and 

 display the most beautiful white cotton. In Malta 

 they cultivate three species- of cotton plant, one natural 

 to the country, another from Siam, and a third of a cin- 

 namon colour, called Antilles cotton. 



In conversations I have had with experienced sports- 

 men respecting quails being so seldom found in England, 

 they could only accoimt for it from the fact that in former 

 times the shepherds caught great numbers of them in 

 the summer with the male and female quail pipe ; but as 

 this plan is adopted in various parts of France, parti- 

 cularly in Gascony, still they are numerous in that 

 country, chiefly from migration. This does not solve the 

 problem of the quails no longer taking their flight to 

 England. 



Quail fighting was a favourite amusement with the 

 Athenians. They abstained from the flesh, deeming it 

 unwholesome, supposing that it fed upon the white 

 hellebore, but they reared gi'eat numbers of them for the 

 purpose of seeing them fight, and staked sums of money, 

 as we did with regard to game cocks, upon the success of 

 the combat. The Chinese are also very fond of quail- 



