QUAIL RABBIT. 225 



QUAIL. Tetrao coturnixLe caille. 



There is no part of this country where we can go 

 regularly out for a day's quail shooting, as in France 

 (where these birds abound in the month of August), or 

 the more southern parts up the Mediterranean, where 

 they sometimes cover the country for miles. The quails 

 are so far plentiful on the left bank of the Tagus, that 

 many of the officers, indifferent shots, while in winter 

 quarters at Vallada, thought nothing of going over, and 

 returning to their dinner with ten or twelve couple, 

 although with every disadvantage in point of guns and 

 ammunition. 



These birds are so scarce in Great Britain, that to 

 find a good bevy of them, and kill three or four brace, 

 is considered as something extraordinary : and, although 

 there is scarcely a sportsman, who has not occasionally 

 met with a few, while shooting partridges in September, 

 yet I have never known any one, who has had much 

 sport with quails in this country. 



RABBIT. Lepus cuniculus Le lapin. 



To shoot rabbits in the evening, sit in a tree ; and, 

 by your being above them, they are not likely to smell 

 you, and will therefore play about close under the tree. 

 Let your dead ones lie till you have done shooting, in- 

 stead of spoiling your own sport by getting down for 

 them. For this work you must take no dog. 



To kill rabbits, feeding in an open warren, keep a 

 few hurdles pitched, and approach or wait for the rab- 

 bits under cover of them ; taking care not to go directly 

 to windward. For a regular attack, however, the better 

 diversion is to ferret the holes, and stand about twenty 



Q 



