NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



more often found by gunners in September. In Devon- 

 shire, Sussex, Cardiganshire, Yorkshire, and other 

 English counties quails were shot during the season 

 of 1899. A brace were shot in Cardiganshire on 

 September 22nd in a locality where they had neither 

 been seen nor heard of for thirty years. In the burning 

 summer of 1893 a remarkable number of quails arrived 

 and bred in this country. The usual period of the 

 return migration is during the month of August, but 

 in that year they were seen or shot in September in a 

 large number of English counties. They remained, 

 too, much later than usual, and were heard of in the 

 month of November. Occasionally, however, as with 

 landrail, a few stray quails, as the result of a late 

 hatching, or from some temporary disablement, stay 

 with us through the winter and brave the rigours of 

 our harsh climate — to them no doubt hateful — as best 

 they can. In January, 1806, Lord Fitzharris, when 

 shooting in Ireland near the sea coast, flushed and 

 shot three quails — a male, female, and young bird — 

 which were all fat and in good condition. 



There are several reasons to account for the scarcity 

 of quails in Britain at the present time. One is, of 

 course, the probability that high farming and drainage 

 have gradually tended to make this country less in- 

 viting than of old. Quails like plenty of shelter : and 

 bare stubbles, a lack of coarse grass and other rough 

 covert, with the disappearance of certain kinds of food, 

 have probably tended to drive these birds to other 

 and less highly cultivated countries. An Irish sports- 

 man has described the favourite lying ground for a 

 quail as being in "dirty stubble, the rough edge of 

 a bog, or the ' turning rig ' of a potato field where 

 weeds have been allowed to grow." But the main 

 reason for the present scarcity lies probably in the fact 



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