NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



bustard-quail is an absurd likeness in little of its big 

 cousin the partridge. A very amusing account is given 

 by Mr. Hume of the female bustard-quails of India 

 and China, which are accustomed to fight fierce duels 

 with one another '*to preserve the chastity of their 

 husbands, these latter sitting meekly in the nursery and 

 looking after the youngsters." 



To sportsmen the quail is, of course, well known. 

 In countries where it is abundant it affords excellent 

 shooting, and very large bags are often made over 

 dogs. In Spain, for example, at the present time fifty 

 couple can be secured in a single day by an expert 

 gunner. In North-West India similar bags are made 

 in good seasons, while in Cape Colony, during a good 

 quail season — which is reckoned by the Dutch farmers 

 as about one in seven — first-rate and very delightful 

 shooting is also obtainable. In Australia sport with the 

 quail of that country {Coturnix pectoralis) is often very 

 good. In 1902 a party of three sportsmen in Victoria 

 bagged eighty brace of these birds in two half-days of 

 April shooting. 



There is to be found no sort of reference to this game- 

 bird in the Badminton volumes on shooting, from which 

 it is to be gathered that its elimination as a British 

 sporting bird is almost complete. Yet old sporting 

 works evidently regarded the quail as a common Eng- 

 lish game-bird, and have very precise instructions con- 

 cerning the various methods of pursuing it. Thus the 

 Gentleman^ s Recreation, published in the reign of 

 Charles II., not only gives plain directions how to 

 take these birds with call-pipe, net, and liming, by 

 stalking-horse, or by the setting dog, but sets forth 

 at length a curious system of netting with the "Low 

 Bell" and links or other lights, by which "good store 

 of partridge, rails, larks, quails," were to be taken. In 



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