218 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



nests in May, building on the ground. Quails are to be 

 taken by the call during their whole wooing-time, which 

 lasts from April to August. The proper time for using 

 the call is at sunrising, at nine o'clock in the morning, 

 at three in the afternoon and at sunset, for these are the 

 natural times of the quail's singing. The notes of the 

 cock and hen quail are very different, and the fowler 

 who expects to succeed in the taking of them must be 

 expert in both, for when the cock calls the answer is to 

 be made in the hen's note, and when the hen calls the 

 answer is to be made in the cock's. By this means they 

 will come up to the fowler, so that he may, with great 

 ease, throw the net over and take them. If a cock 

 quail be single, on hearing the hen's note he will im- 

 mediately come, but if he have a hen already with him 

 he will not forsake her. Sometimes, though only one 

 quail answers to the call, there will be three or four come 

 up, and then it is best to have patience and not run to 

 take up the first, but stay till they are all entangled, as 

 they soon will be. The quail is a neat, cleanly bird, and 

 will not run much into dirty or wet places. 



" On dewy mornings they will often fly instead of 

 running to the call, and in this case it is better to let them 

 go over the net if it so happens that they fly higher than 

 its top, and the fowler then changing sides and calling 

 again, the bird will come back and then will probably 

 be taken in the net. The calls are to be made of a small 

 leathern purse, about two fingers wide and four fingers 

 long, and made in the shape of a pear ; this is to be 



