17$ HISTORY OF 



bird, deeming it unwholesome, supposing that it 

 fed upon the white hellebore; but they reared 

 great numbers of them for the pleasure of seeing 

 them fight, and staked sums of money, as we do 

 with regard to cocks, upon the success of the 

 combat. Fashion, however, has at present chang- 

 ed witli regard to this bird ; we take no pleasure 

 in its courage, but its flesh is considered as a very 

 great delicacy. 



Quails are easily caught by a call : the fowler, 

 early in the morning, having spread his net, hides 

 himself under it among the corn ; he then imi- 

 tates the voice of the female with his quail-pipe, 

 which the cock hearing, approaches with the 

 utmost assiduity : when he has got under the net, 

 the fowler then discovers himself, and terrifies 

 the quail, who, attempting to get away, entangles 

 himself the more in the net, and is taken. The 

 quail may thus very well serve to illustrate the 

 old adage, That every passion, carried to an inor- 

 dinate excess, will at last lead to ruin. 



