142 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



that place. That the Quail is a friend to the 

 farmer, and a hird everywhere to be encouraged, 

 the reader will be inclined to admit on perusing the 

 following extract : " On examination of the food 

 contained in about thirty Quails, shot at various 

 times and places during winter and early spring, 

 seven- eighths of it was found to consist of the seeds 

 of weeds, such as the different species of plantain 

 (Plantago), persicaria (Polygonum, P. minus, &c.), 

 dock (Rumex), wild vetch (Vicia), chickweed (Stel- 

 laria, &c.) . The crop of one bird being filled with 

 the seeds of Stellaria media, I reckoned a certain 

 number of them; and judging of the rest accord- 

 ingly, found that there could not be less in it than 

 3,500."* 



ORDER GRALLATORES. Family CHARADRHDJE. 



GREAT PLOVER, STONE CURLEW, or THICK-KNEE, 

 CEdicnemus crepitans. According to the observa- 

 tions of the Hon. and Kev. W. Herbert, the Stone 

 Curlew is found only on chalk, or on ploughed land 

 where there is a chalk subsoil. He says : " It never 

 strayed to the sand or gravel, and consequently was 

 not upon the heaths, but in the chalky turnip-fields." 



* Thompson's 'Natural History of Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 76. 



