1 84 



dog arrived on the bank, and catching sight of it 

 immediately captured it in the water before it had 

 time to gain the land. 



The bird, which I examined alive, had not 

 received the slightest injury, being blessed with the 

 full use of both wings and legs, so that its taking to 

 the water was entirely a matter of choice. 



The specimens in the case were obtained in 

 Glenlyon in Perthshire during the summer of 1867. 

 The young, which were captured by the retriever, 

 must, I should imagine, have been a second brood, 

 being taken as late as the 1st of September. 



QUAIL. 

 Case 271. 



This bird is much commoner in the southern 

 counties than is generally supposed. 



Numbers breed in the immediate vicinity of 

 Brighton, their eggs being frequently mown out 

 within a few hundred yards of the town. Still, as 

 but few are ever obtained during the shooting 

 season in this part, I suppose they must be migrants 

 on the south coast, although their time of arrival 

 and departure, or where they go to, has always 

 been a mystery to me. They are occasionally 

 found in most counties in England, though but 

 rarely in Scotland. 



I have often myself fallen in with several 

 scattered birds when shooting in the Fens near Cam- 

 bridge, where, with the help of Partridges, Snipe, 

 Duck, Teal and Hares, a good mixed bag was not 

 unfrequently made up during the early part of the 

 winter. I now and then heard of as many as seven 

 or eight brace being killed in a day, but that was 

 usually in the beginning of September. I have 

 also good proof that they nested in the neighbour- 

 hood, as one of the specimens in the case was shot 

 on Bottisham 'Fen in May, 1861 ; the remainder 



