SHORTER-BILLED RUNNING BIRDS. 240 



QUAIL. -Form, like a tiny Partridge. 8 inches. 

 General colour above light brown, sharply variegated 

 with yellow and black ; a series of parallel bands, 

 alternately yellow and brown, along the head and 

 nape ; throat white ; chest ruddy-buff, with lighter 

 streaks ; under parts white ; bill dusky-brown ; legs 

 paler. Summer migrant and resident. 



Eggs. 7-12, yellowish-white, very glossy, spotted 

 and blotched boldly with umber-brown ; I'l * *9 inch 

 (plate 135). 



Nest. Merely a hollow scraped in the ground, with 

 a scanty lining of dead stalks and stems. 



The Quail is in form like a tiny Partridge, plump- 

 bodied, small-billed, and having a stumpy tail. It is 

 a summer migrant to this country, where it is broadly 

 rather than numerously distributed. Some birds are 

 found even in whiter in the south of England and in 

 Ireland. The Quail nests in a slight hollow scratched 

 among corn or grass, and has a very distinctive three- 

 syllabled call, first a long, whistled note, and then two 

 shorter ones, the whole supposed to resemble an insis- 

 tent ' Wet-my-feet ! ' Quails are thorough ground- 

 birds, feeding on grain, seeds, and insects, and trust to 

 their running powers and aptitude for taking cover, 

 rather than to flight If flushed, they escape in low 

 flight with whirring wings, the latter being drooped 

 archwise as they finally skim to earth. They affect 

 farm lands less than the wilder open country, and are 

 less often seen than heard. The Quail is by far the 

 smallest of our ground game-birds (about a quarter of 



