200 AMEEICAN GAME. 



riably tlie cleanest of weeds ; and a right good sports- 

 man, and good friend of mine, working on the same base 

 per contra^ says that, in driving his shooting-cart and 

 dogs through a country, he has never found it worth his 

 while to stop and beat a district^full of weedy and dirty 

 farms, as such never contain Quail. 



If this may lead our farmers to consider that every live 

 Quail does far more good on the farm, than the shilling 

 earned by his capture in the omnivorous trap ; and 

 therefore to prohibit their sons and farm-boys from exter- 

 minating them at their utmost need, when food is scarce, 

 and shelter hard to find, my words will not have been 

 altogether wasted, nor my object unattained. 



Were I a farmer, I would hang it over my kitchen 

 fire-place, inscribed in goodly capitals " Spare the 

 Quail ! If you would have clean fields and goodly crops, 

 spare the Quail ! So shall you spare your labor." 



And now, in a few words, we will on to their nomen- 

 clature, their distinctive marks, their regions of inhabit- 

 ation, seasons, haunts and habits ; and last, not least, 

 how, when, and where lawfully, honorably, sportsmanly, 

 and gnostically, you may and shall kill them. 



I will not, however, here pause long to discuss the 

 point, whether they ought to be termed Quail or Par- 

 tridge. Scientifically and practically they are neither, 

 but a connecting link between the two subgenera. True 

 Partridge, nor true Quail, very^mfe, nor very coturnix, 

 exists at all anywhere in America. Our bird, an inter- 



