QUAIL 



225 



rich arable fields. The general colour above is brownish grey, finely marked with 

 black, the grey being darker in the birds of northern Europe. The head is 

 brown at the top, the rest of it being chestnut, like the throat and neck. There 

 are buff cross-bars on the wing-coverts and scapulars of the female but none on 

 those of the male, this being the only marking by which the sexes can be dis- 

 tinguished, although in many cases the cock has a horseshoe-spot on the breast, 

 which may be obscure or wanting, or even more distinct, in the hen. The middle 

 tail-feathers are coloured like the back, the others being chestnut, and the under- 

 pays are greyish on the breast, fading into whitish on the abdomen. In old birds 

 the first flight-feather is rounded at the tip ; in birds of the year this feather is 

 pointed. Young birds have yellowish brown feet, which turn to bluish grey as 

 soon as hard weather sets 

 in and remain that colour. 

 The partridge inhabits 

 Europe from southern 

 Scandinavia to the shores 

 of the Mediterranean, from 

 Spain to the Caucasus, and 

 is found in Asia as far east 

 as the Altai Mountains. 



The sex 

 of the part- 

 ridge cannot always be dis- 

 tinguished by the horse- 

 shoe, but that of the quail 

 is invariably shown by the 

 anchor on the chin and 

 throat, which is never borne 

 by the females. Quails are 

 comparatively small birds 

 with pointed wings, long 

 white axillaries, and a short 

 tail of ten or twelve soft 

 feathers. The migratory species (Cotumix communis) spends the greater part 

 of its life on grassy plains and meadows, or arable lands : ranging over the milder 

 countries of Europe, from southern Italy to central Sweden, and vast stretches of 

 Africa, but especially the plains of Asia to the far east. In the Caucasus it is found 

 up to a height of 8000 feet; and it is most abundant in Hungary and the 

 plains of south Russia. In Germany it has greatly decreased in numbers, especially 

 in the south, where it is only a bird-of-passage. Many quails remain in the south 

 of Europe during the winter, but most migrate to South Africa. They start south 

 towards the end of August ; by the middle of September their migration is at its 

 height, and in October the last stragglers disappear. They fly easily, but prefer 

 a light wind ; if the wind is against them they remain on shore, or on cliffs and 

 downs, and when tired often settle on the decks of ships at sea ; they are even said 

 to rest sometimes on the waves, when many perish. In southern Europe and 



VOL. I 15 



THE QUAIL. 



