QUAIL. 329 



afford it food; in winter it lives largely on the 

 small spotted peas of the lesser fee-fee, (Clitoria 

 Virginiana.) 



Robinson describes the egg : " the colour, white ; 

 length li, breadth ^5- inch. Nineteen were found 

 in one nest." (MSS. iii. 159.) He afterwards 

 says, "A nest has been known to contain no less 

 than thirty." 



Before I dismiss the Gallinaceous birds, I may 

 mention an interesting fact, of which Mr. Hill in- 

 formed me ; that the Turkey is, as far as European 

 knowledge is concerned, indigenous to the greater 

 Antilles, having been found by the Spanish dis- 

 coverers, already domesticated by the Indians ; and 

 that the European domestic breed is descended from 

 West Indian, and not from North American parent- 

 age. This would perhaps tend to confirm, what has 

 been suspected, that the domestic Turkey is spe- 

 cifically distinct from the wild Turkey of North 

 America. 



