142 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



from general. In any case the two species appear 

 to have since become thoroughly accustomed to each 

 other, for in many districts with which I am acquainted, 

 they certainly now live in amity side by side ; so much 

 so in fact as occasionally to lay their eggs in each 

 other's nests. Red-legged partridges show greater liking 

 than do the grey birds for securing some elevated 

 position upon which to perch. Now and again they 

 may be discovered perched in trees or fences or upon 

 a gate. I once saw a covey of red-legs fly up to, and 

 alight upon a wall some 18 or 20 feet in height. 

 Occasionally these birds will choose for a nesting 

 site the thatched roof of some low building, or the 

 top of a corn or straw stack, and I once discovered 

 a nest in the head of a low pollard-willow near 

 Southend in Essex. The full complement of eggs in 

 the nest runs to about fifteen or eighteen, and these 

 eggs have a yellowish-white ground spotted and freckled 

 over with red or brownish-red. Red-legs go to nest 

 somewhat earlier than the common partridge. 



THE QUAIL. {Coturnix communist) 



Years ago Great Britain and Ireland, the latter 

 especially, would seem to have possessed -a body of 

 quail that was more or less resident. Whether this 

 residential character was attributable to the existence 

 of a purely native race or simply to those migratory 

 birds whose tastes inclined them to winter here in 

 preference to journeying southward, is a question that 

 has not been decided, so far as I am aware. At the 

 present time a winter quail is a great rarity in Great 

 Britain, this diminutive game-bird being now only a 



