QUAIL. 75 



with another, probably the female "apple of discord," sitting 

 quietly by the while. I have seen the male, too, in the evening, 

 when summoning his newly-married wife, stand on the top of one 

 of our stone walls and call repeatedly. The nest is made on the 

 ground in a field of grass or com, or on a dry hedge bank, or at 

 the foot of a wall among the long grass, and consists of little but 

 a slight depression in the ground, with a few dead leaves and 

 bents. The number of eggs varies between eight or ten and 

 twenty. But it is no uncommon thing for two Partridges to lay 

 in the same nest, and an instance came to my knowledge two or 

 three years since, in which a Red-legged Partridge had laid 

 several eggs in a Common Partridge's nest. When two birds 

 lav together thus, the covey sometimes amounts to thirty or 

 thirty-five birds. I knew one instance of forty, about three 

 years since. The male Partridge is known to help his mate when 

 the hatch is drawing on, by sitting at her side ana covering some 

 of the eggs. When there are two layings in the same nest, it is 

 an interesting question whether the two hens sit together, or the 

 original owner of the nest is simply assisted by her mate. The 

 young birds are able to run and " fend for themselves" almost as 

 soon as they are hatched. The eggs are of a uniform pale olive- 

 brown hue. Fig. 6, plate VI. 



157. RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE (Perdix rufa). 

 Erench Partridge, Guernsey Partridge. A much more striking 

 bird in appearance than the Common Partridge, and said also to 

 be a powerful enemy to it. Certainly, in districts where it has 

 been encouraged and preserved, it seems to have prevailed to 

 the comparative exclusion of the indigenous species. It is sup- 

 posed to have been first introduced about the time of Charles II. 

 For long it seems to have increased and spread but very slowly, 

 but now there are many districts of the south where it is exceed- 

 ingly abundant. These birds form a slight nest of dry bents and 

 leaves upon the ground, amid some growing crop of grass or 

 corn. Instances, nowever, have been asserted in which the nest 

 'was a good deal elevated above the ground, as on the top of a 

 stack. The eggs, very hard-shelled, are from ten to fifteen or 

 sixteen in number, of a cream colour, well spotted with small 

 speckles of reddish or cinnamon brown. Fig. 7, plate FL 



158. QUAIL (Coturnix vulgaris}. 



The quail is believed, in some rare instances, to stay with us 

 all the year, but is usually only a summer visitant, not coming in 

 any great numbers. In some countries its migratory hosts are 

 so great that one hundred thousand are said to have been taken 

 in a day. In its appearance, the quail strongly reminds one of 



