440 THE QUAIL. 



The Partridge begins to lay about the end of April, gathering together 

 a bundle of dry grasses into some shallow depression in the ground, and 

 depositing therein a clutch of eggs, generally from twelve to twenty in 

 number. Sometimes a still greater number has been found, but in these 

 cases it is tolerably evident from many observations that several birds 

 have laid in the same nest. 



When the young are hatched they are strong on their legs at once, 

 running about with ease, and mostly leaving the nest on the same day. 

 The mother takes her little new-born brood to their feeding-places — 

 generally ant-hills or caterpillar-haunted spots — and aids them in their 

 search after food by scratching away the soil with her feet. 



The nests of the wood-ant, which are found mostly in fir-plantations 

 or hilly ground, being very full of inhabitants, very easily torn to 

 pieces, and, the ants and their larvae and pupae being very large, are 

 favorite feeding-places of the Partridge, which in such localities is said 

 to acquire a better flavor than among the lower pasture4ands. 



The young brood, technically called a " covey," associate together, 

 and have a very strong local tendency, adhering with great pertina- 

 city to the same field or patch of land. Wiien together they are mostly 

 rather wild, and dart off at the least alarm with tlieir well-known whir- 

 ring flight, just topping a hedge or wall, and settling on the other side 

 till again put up ; but when the members of the covey are separated, 

 they seem to dread the air and crouch closely to the ground, so that it 

 is the object of the sportsman to scatter the covey and to pick them up 

 singly. 



The plumage of the Partridge is brown, of several shades, above, min- 

 gled witli gray. The breast is gray, with a horseshoe-like patch of rich 

 chestnut on its lower portion, and the sides and flanks are barred with 

 chestnut. The total length of the male bird is rather more than a foot ; 

 the female is smaller than her mate, and the chestnut bars on the flanks 

 are broader than those of the male. 



The odd, short-legged, round-bodied, quick-footed Quail is closely 

 allied to the partridge in form and many of its habits. Of these birds 

 there are many species ; but, as all are much alike, there is no need of 

 many examples. 



The common Quail is found spread over the greater part of Europe 

 and portions of Asia and Africa, coming to our island in the summer, 

 though not in very great numbers. In England the bird is not suffi- 

 ciently plentiful to be of any commercial value, but in Italy and some 

 of the warmer lands which the Quails traverse during their periodical 

 migrations, the inhabitants look forward to the arrival of the Quail 

 with the greatest anxiety. In those countries they are shot, snared, 

 and netted by thousands ; and it is chiefly from the foreign markets 

 tliat our game-shops are supplied with these birds. When ^t the flesh 



