THE CAPEECAILLIE. 



441 



of the Quail is very delicious, and the most approved way of cooking 

 the bird is to envelop it in a very thin slice of bacon, tie it up in a 

 large vine-leaf, and then roast it. 



In their migrations the Quails fly by night — a peculiarity which has 

 been noted in the scriptural record 

 of the Exodus, where it is men- 

 tioned that " at even the quails 

 came up and covered the camp." 



It is rather curious that the 

 males precede the females by 

 several days, and are conse- 

 quently more persecuted by the 

 professional fowlers. 



The male bird does not pair like 

 the partridge, but takes to himself 

 a plurality of wives, and, as is gen- 

 erally the case with such polyga- 

 mists, has to fight many desperate 

 battles with others of its own sex. 

 Although ill-provided with weap- 



ons of offence, the Quail is as fiery 



The Virginia Quail. ( Ortyx Virginianus), 



and courageous a bird as the gamecock, and in Eastern countries is 

 largely kept and trained for the purpose of fighting prize-battles, on 

 the result of which the owners stake large sums. The note of the 

 male is a kind of shrill whis- 

 tle, which is heard only dur- 

 ing the breeding season. 



The nest of the Quail is 

 of no better construction than 

 that of the partridge, being 

 merely a few bits of hay and 

 dried herbage gathered into 

 some little depression in the 

 bare ground, and generally 

 entrusted to the protection of 

 corn-stalks, clover, or a tuft of 

 rank grass. The number of 

 eggs is generally about four- 

 teen or fifteen, and their color 

 is buffy white, marked with 

 patches or speckles of brown. 



Although once a common inhabitant of the highland districts of 

 Great Britain, the Capercaillie has now been almost wholly extinct 

 for some years, a straggling specimen being occasionally seen in Scot- 



The Capercaillie {Tetrao urogallus). 



