COMMON QUAIL. 465 



able to run and follow their parents almost as soon as they are hatched, 

 and they quickly learn to pick up and search for their own food. Only 

 one brood is reared in the year. As soon as the young are capable of 

 taking care of themselves the family party appears to be broken up, and 

 the birds are solitary in their habits until the time of migration arrives. 

 The resident birds in this country are never found in coveys like Part- 

 ridges, and are usually flushed singly from the cover. The Quail seems 

 very much attached to its haunts, appearing in them regularly ; and Dixon 

 has known an instance of several pairs of these birds having been turned 

 out, and though always absent in winter, their well-known call unfailingly 

 proclaiming their presence in the district the following summer. 



The Quail may almost be regarded as a miniature Partridge ; and the 

 two species resemble each other so closely in the pattern of their coloration 

 that it is difficult to believe that they can be generically distinct. The 

 general colour of the adult male Quail in spring plumage is buff. The 

 cheeks are chestnut, and the chin and throat are nearly black. The crown, 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts are barred with dark and light brown, 

 and behind each eye is a buff streak. Pale shaft-lines form a mesial line 

 on the crown, and are conspicuous on the back, scapulars, innermost 

 secondaries, the sides of the rump, and flanks. Bill, legs, feet, and claws 

 brown. Irides hazel. The female differs from the male in having the 

 chin and throat pale buff, and the breast and flanks profusely spotted with 

 very dark brown. After the autumn moult the colour is retained on the 

 chin and upper throat, but the chestnut on the cheeks and the dark brown 

 of the lower throat is moulted into buff. Males of the year resemble 

 females, but have very few spots on the breast. In what appear to be 

 males in first spring plumage the chin and throat, as well as the cheeks 

 and ear- co verts, are chestnut. In examples which are probably males in 

 their second spring plumage, the dark brown on the chin and throat is 

 confined to the centre. The fully adult plumage does not appear to be 

 attained until the third spring. Immature males have the flanks richly 

 spotted as in the female. 



Several attempts have been made to naturalize the Virginian Colin 

 (Ortyx virginianus) both in England and in Scotland, but none of them 

 have proved successful. Some ornithologists have introduced this bird 

 into the British list on the strength of examples thus imported, which 

 have been shot in various parts of the country. It is a resident in the 

 Eastern States of North America, extending northwards into South Canada 

 and westwards into Texas, being subject to some local variation in colour, 

 which has given rise to its being divided into several subspecies. In 

 its general appearance this bird is intermediate between a Quail and a 

 Partridge, but is very different from either, and in America it is called by 

 both these names. 



VOL. II. 2 H 



