Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 357 



is so little frost in Ireland that food is generally to be procured with 

 ease, and is so far corroborative of the view just mentioned. But I 

 have had evidence of the evil influence of cold upon the quail, by 

 finding it among rushes close to the sea-side (Belfast bay) in severe 

 frost, when our indigenous birds were likewise suffering from the 

 weather, and have known one on such an occasion to be shot on the 

 oozy banks of the bay at low- water, a furlong from the shore*. 



The call of the quail, here interpreted icet-my-foot\, is frequently 

 uttered from " earliest dawn to latest eve" in spring and the more 

 genial periods of the yearj, and during Mdnter also may occasionally 

 be heard in the north of Ireland. Mr. R. Davis, jun. of Clonmel, 

 remarks, that there is " great variety in the colour of quails' eggs; I 

 have some nearly covered with dark spots, and others almost plain." 

 So late as the 24th of September 1834, a friend sprung one of these 

 birds from its nest, and on the 9th or 10th of October in the same 

 year, he met w'ith two broods of young birds, some of which could 

 not fly. Although fields of grain are the quail's chief resort, I have 

 known clover-fields in grain districts to be its favourite haunt in 

 spring and summer ; and in these seasons it occasionally frequents 

 meadows. Among turnips it is not unfrequently met with in winter. 

 Of eighteen quails shot at various times and places during winter and 

 early spring, the greater number, on being opened, were found to 

 contain only very small seeds of various kinds ; among others, those 

 of the noxious weed, the dock (Rumex) ; a few, the seeds of different 

 species of vetches ; still fewer, green vegetable matter, or grains of 

 wheat ; and one, large peas : — they all exhibited sand, or fragments 

 of stone. 



In the month of August 1826, I met with quails in Italy. At 

 Malta, on the 1 9th of April 1 84 1 , I saw at table some which had 

 been brought from Naples, whence, likewise, a quantity hawked 

 about the streets was procured. It is said that a few of these birds 

 remain permanently in the island of Malta. On the passage of 

 H.M.S. Beacon thence to the Morea, occupying from the 21st to 

 the 27th of April, a quail alighted on the vessel ; it was the only 



* Pennant states his having been assured " that these birds migrate out 

 of the neighbouring inland counties, into the hundreds of Essex, in October, 

 and continue there all the winter : if frost or snow drive them out of the 

 stubble fields and marshes, they retreat to the sea-side, shelter themselves 

 among the weeds, and five upon what they can pick up from the a/r/^, &c. 

 between high- and low-water mark. Our friend remarks, that the time of 

 their appearance in Essex coincides with that of their leaving the inland 

 counties; the same observation has been made in Hampshire." — British 

 Zoology. I have not met with any allusion to this in subsequent works on 

 British Ornithology. It would be desirable to know if such be the case at 

 the present time. 



t In some of the continental countries, and particularly in Holland, I 

 have been surprised to see poor quails imprisoned in miserably small 

 cages, and hung outside the windows like singing birds, apparently for their 

 music, which consists but of the above three notes. 



X I have notes of hearing the call in September, half an hour after sun- 

 set; indeed, of their calling and answering each other until dusk. 



