222 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS, 



tered hedge-row, or along the green and shrubby margin of 

 some sequestered streamlet ; but never in thick woodlands, and 

 rarely in open fields. 



Most birds, so soon as they have paired, proceed at once to 

 the duties of nidification and the rearing of their young; it 

 seems to me, however, that the Quail spend some time in pairs 

 before proceeding to this task ; for I have frequently seen 

 them in pairs so early as the twentieth of March, yet I have 

 never found the Hen sitting, or a nest with eggs in it, during 

 spring Snipe shooting, though I have often flushed the paired 

 birds on the same ground with the long-billed emigrants. 



I have never, indeed, seen a Quail's nest earlier than the 

 middle of May, and have often found them sitting as late as the 

 end of July. 



Thi'ir nest is inartificial, made of grasses, and situate for the 

 most part under the shelter of a stump or tussock in some wild 

 meadows, or near the bushy margin of some clover field or 

 orchard. The Hen lays from ten to two-and-twenty eggs, and 

 is relieved at times, in hatching them, by the male bird ; who 

 constantly keeps guard around her, now sitting on the bough of 

 the nearest tree, now perched on the top rail of a snake fence, 

 making the woods and hills resound with his loud and cheery 

 whistle. 



The period of the Quails' incubation, I do not know correctly ; 

 the young birds run the moment they burst from the egg ; and 

 it is not uncommon to see them tripping about with pieces of 

 the shell adhering to their backs. 



The first brood hatched, and fairly on foot, the hen proceeds 

 at once to the preparation of a second nest ; and committing 

 the care of the early younglings to her mate, or rather dividing 

 with him the duties of rearing the first, and hatching the second 

 bevy, she devotes herself incessantly to her maternal duties. 



So far as I can asceitain, the Quail almost invariably raises a 

 second, and sometimes, I believe, even a third brood in a single 

 season. Hence, if unmolested, they increase with extraordinary 

 rapidity, when the seasons ;.re propitious. It is, however 



