THE POULTRY KIND. 105 



mies, tney have more frequent occasion to put their little arts in prac- 

 tice, and learn by habit the means of evasion or safety. Whenever, 

 therefore, a dog, or other formidable animal approaches their nest, the 

 female uses every means to draw .him away. She keeps just before 

 him, pretends to be incapable of flying, just hops up, and then falls 

 down before him, but never goes off so far as to discourage her pur- 

 suer. At length, when she has drawn him entirely away from her 

 secret treasure, she at once takes wing, and fairly leaves him to gaze 

 after her in despair. 



After the danger is over, and the dog withdrawn, she then calls her 

 young, who assemble at once at her cry, and follow where she leads 

 them. There are generally from ten to fifteen in a covey ; and, if 

 unmolested, they live from fifteen to seventeen years. 



There are several methods of taking them, as is well known ; that 

 by which they are taken in a net with a setting-dog, is the most plea- 

 sant as well as the most secure. The dog, as every body knows, is 

 trained to this exercise, by a long course of education ; by blows and 

 caresses he is taught to lie down at the word of command ; a part- 

 ridge is shown him, and he is then ordered to lie down ; he is brought 

 into the field, and when the sportsman perceives where the covey lies, 

 he orders his dog to crouch ; at length the dog, from habit, crouches 

 wherever he approaches a covey ; and this is the signal which the 

 sportsman receives for unfolding and covering the birds with his net. 

 A covey, thus caught, is sometimes fed in a place proper for their re- 

 ception ; but they can never be thoroughly tamed, like the rest of 

 our domestic poultry. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE QUAIL. 



THE last of the poultry kind that I shall mention is the quail ; a 

 bird much smaller than any of the former, being not above half the 

 size of a partridge. The feathers of the head are black, edged with 

 rusty brown; the breast is of a pale yellowish red, spotted with black; 

 the feathers on the back are marked with lines of a pale yellow, and 

 the legs are of a pale hue. Except in the colours thus described, and 

 the size, it every way resembles a partridge in shape ; and except 

 that it is a bird of passage, all others of the poultry kind, in its habits 

 and nature. 



1 he quail is by all known to be a bird of passage ; and yet if we 

 consider its heavy manner of flying, and its dearth of plumage, with 

 respect to its corpulence, we shall be surprised how a bird so appa- 

 rently ill qualified for migration, should take such extensivejourneys. 

 Nothing, however, is more certain. " When we sailed from Rhodes 

 to Alexandria." says Bellonius, " about autumn, many quails flying 



