The Quail 



blotched with umber brown. The male has a melodious call- 

 note, which may be syllabled as " clerk, lik, lik," to which 

 the female answers with a soft " peu, peu." The food consists 

 of grain, seeds, and insects, and at the times of migration 

 this bird becomes exceedingly fat and very good eating. 

 The Quails that are found in our markets are usually snared 

 in Italy during the spring migration, and used to be sent 

 alive to this country, but they are now killed and sent dead. 

 It was a migration of this species that supplied the Children 

 of Israel with food in the desert, and large flocks still pass 

 through Palestine yearly on migration. 



The Quail is not unlike a small Partridge, and is of a 

 uniform sandy brown on the upper parts, with paler shafts 

 to the feathers. The chin and throat are white, with two 

 brown crescentic bars, and sometimes a brown streak down 

 the centre. The breast is huffish and the under parts white. 

 This species shows a certain amount of variation in minor 

 details of plumage. Length 7 in. ; wing 4 '4 in. 



THE LAND-RAIL 



Crex pratensis, Bechstein 



Grass lands throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland 

 form the summer home of this well-known and abundant 

 species. It is a migrant, arriving towards the end of April 

 and leaving our shores again in September, though a few 

 individuals occasionally remain and pass the winter in 

 Ireland and some of the western counties of England. It 



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