230 QUAIL. 



they seem to be rather rare; one was taken on board a 

 pilot-boat about twenty miles at sea, May 10th., 1850; and 

 two were shot in September in the same year. 



The Quail occurs near Lilford, Northamptonshire, as the 

 Hon. T. L. Powys has informed me, and also near Aldwinkle 

 and Titchmarsh; likewise in some parts of Berkshire they are 

 common, while in others they are hardly ever seen, as William 

 Hewet, Esq. has written me word. In Lincolnshire the Rev. 

 R. P. Alington says they appear singly in autumn; in the year 

 1851 more were seen than usual; formerly they used to occur 

 in bevies in the parish of Stenigot, near Horncastle. One was 

 met with in June, 1840, within a hundred yards of the town 

 of Melbourne, Derbyshire. 



Captain Turton, of the Third Dragoon Guards, has written 

 me word that the Quail is the Partridge of Ireland, and that 

 if the country gentlemen would go to the expense of preserving 

 them, as they do in England, they might have as many as 

 there are Partridges in our best preserves. 



In Scotland it occurs but seldom; in Sutherlandshire it 

 appears occasionally near Dunrobin, and also has been met 

 with in Aberdeenshire, in the parish of Towie, and in Morayshire. 

 In Orkney one was shot in Sanday, by Mr. Strang, in May, 

 1833. 



Quails migrate north and south in spring and autumn in 

 countless thousands, and vast numbers are taken by bird- 

 catchers. As many as one hundred thousand are said to have 

 been taken in one day in the kingdom of Naples. Three 

 thousand dozen are reported to have been purchased in one 

 year by the London dealers alone. They migrate in flocks, 

 and the males are said to precede the females. They are 

 believed to travel at night. They arrive here the end of 

 April, or beginning of May, and depart early again in Sep- 

 tember. Not being strong on the wing, yet obliged to cross 

 the sea to seek a warmer climate in winter, thousands are 

 picked up by the shores on their arrival in an exhausted 

 state; many are drowned in the passage, and some are fre- 

 quently captured on board of vessels met with 'in transitu.' 

 Not a few, however, seem to remain throughout the winter. 

 One was obtained in this parish, Nafferton, Yorkshire, in 

 December, 1851; one at Halliford, in Middlesex, the 18th. of 

 September, 1841. One was shot near Worcester, in January, 

 1850; another, a male, the same month at Parson Drove, near 

 Wisbeach, in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, on the 16th. ; 



