NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



moonlight nights than any others. This at least was 

 my impression, which is strengthened by a note of the 

 late Mr. E. L. Layard, a very careful observer. He says 

 in his Birds of South Africa: " At this season, though 

 perfectly quiescent during the day, my birds fly up and 

 dash themselves against the bars at all hours of the 

 night, particularly during moonlight. This could not 

 have been from terror, as they were quite tame at the 

 time, feeding from my hand and scratching on my 

 palm to obtain some desired seed that their little quick 

 eyes discriminated in the mass thus offered them." 



The Zulus of Natal have the curious belief that quails 

 turn into toads after their arrival in that country. The 

 reason for this belief, it has been suggested — and 

 I think rightly — is that these birds make their return 

 migration at the time when the heaviest of the rains are 

 about, at which season toads and frogs appear plenti- 

 fully and quails disappear. In Natal quails appear 

 early in September ; in Cape Colony usually towards 

 the end of August, although in some seasons they 

 appear near Cape Town as early as the middle of 

 August. Their stay is a brief one, and they usually 

 make their return journey by the beginning of 

 December. If the British gunner can no longer 

 obtain decent quail-shooting in his own islands, he 

 can certainly get it in South Africa. In good seasons 

 sport with these beautiful little game-birds is first-rate, 

 and bags of thirty and forty brace to a single gun are 

 made without difficulty. The Boers assert that every 

 seventh season is a fat '* quail year." That, of course, 

 is an absurdity ; it is, however, possible that the 

 average of heavy quail migrations in South Africa 

 may be about one year in seven. 



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