464 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Its flight is quick and performed by rapid beats of its rounded wings, 

 but it sometimes skims for some distance with outspread wings like a 

 Partridge or Grouse. It seldom flies at any great height, usually a yard 

 or so from the ground ; nor does it fly further than it can possibly help, 

 always taking the first opportunity to drop down into cover. 



Like the Partridge, the Quail is very fond of taking a dust-bath; and 

 during the heat of the day usually lies very close, being most active in the 

 early morning and late afternoon and evening. 



The food of the Quail is largely composed of seeds of different kinds, 

 chiefly of grasses and weeds, but it will also eat grain. To this fare must 

 be added many kinds of insects and slugs, for which it often searches 

 amongst the turnips and other root-crops. It sometimes picks an insect 

 from the leaves, and occasionally snaps at one as it flies by. The gizzards 

 of these birds contain a little sand or quartz, as is usual with game birds, 

 to assist in the digestion of their food. 



The Quail is partly polygamous arid partly monogamous ; as a rule, the 

 male pairs with only one female, but probably in localities where there is 

 an excess of females he pairs with several. Few birds are so pugnacious as 

 the Quail. Each male is very jealous of its particular haunt, from which 

 it strives to beat off all intruders. It is a late breeder, and its eggs are 

 not laid before June. The nest is generally in the open fields amongst the 

 growing herbage, not under the shelter of the hedges, but often in the 

 centre of the field, in a similar situation to that generally selected by the 

 Sky-Lark : sometimes a grass-field is chosen, but more frequently a corn- 

 field, or even the rough herbage of the open common. The nest scarcely 

 merits the name, for it is only a slight hollow scratched in the ground, in 

 which are gathered a few withered bits of herbage or a dead leaf or two. 

 It is no uncommon thing to find two nests quite close to each other, 

 doubtless belonging to two females mated to one male. Some nests 

 contain as many as twenty eggs, others only sixteen, and frequently only 

 eight or twelve are found. 



The eggs of the Quail are very handsome, varying in ground-colour 

 from creamy white or buff to yellowish olive, boldly blotched and spotted 

 with olive- brown and rich blackish brown. Some eggs are far more 

 thickly blotched than others, many of the markings being confluent, others 

 are sparingly marked with large spots and numerous paler and smaller 

 blotches ; less frequently they are minutely and evenly speckled over the 

 entire surface with spots of very dark brown, here and there large round 

 portions of the ground-colour appearing as if the colour had been acci- 

 dentally rubbed off. They vary in length from 1'2 to I'l inch, and in 

 breadth from '92 to '82 inch. The female alone performs the duties of 

 incubation, which lasts about three weeks ; and when the eggs are hatched 

 both parents are often found in company with the brood. The young are 



