246 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



Quail, humbly supine on his little mattress of transparent bacon, is 

 an object agreeable to three senses. Enveloped in lard, or clothed 

 with a vine-leaf, the plump little creature is equally delectable. A 

 good roast of quails, even in Paris, costs more than two fat fowls, 

 (and this is no joke, for there are places where one fat capon can 

 cost as much as twelve shillings). Of the French quails, the best 

 are those of Montredon, near Marseilles. There are a thousand 

 ways of disguising them; with beef marrow, truffles, herbs, and 

 mushrooms ; they are good a la braise, & la poele, au gratin (with 

 crumbs), with cabbages, or with lentils coulis. In the lark season 

 it is not uncommon at hotels to disguise larks as quails, but an 

 epicure, even though blind, could tell the difference; for though 

 the lark is much in esteem with poets, and is indeed decidedly a 

 quiet, amiable, well-disposed, and even respectable bird, he is only 

 a tooth-pick, a mere pastime, in comparison with the exquisite 

 bird that fed the Israelites in the desert." 



OBS. It may not be out of place here to notice in a few sentences 

 a paper which was read in January, 1870, at a meeting of the 

 Natural History Society of Glasgow, " On the introduction of the 

 WILD TURKEY (Meleagris Gallopavo) into Argyleshire," by Mr John 

 Gilmour. The author of this paper mentioned having received 

 three specimens of this beautiful bird a male and two females 

 from the southern extremity of Lake Huron in Canada, in the 

 summer of 1866, since which time various broods had been 

 successfully reared in the neighbourhood of Ardlamont, where the 

 birds had been allowed their full liberty in the woods. At first it 

 was found necessary to establish a brood by hatching the eggs 

 under common barn door fowls, but the young birds at once 

 exhibited their thoroughly wild nature by refusing the shelter of a 

 roof and preferring to roost on trees. One of the birds of this 

 flock (reared in 1867) a young male Mr Gilmour described as a 

 very handsome bird of beautiful plumage, his magnificent bronzed 

 feathers shewing to great advantage in the sunlight. In the 

 summer of 1868, one of the hens selected a site for its nest in a 

 dense thicket of ivy clothing the summit of a high and precipitous 

 rock, where it managed to remain unobserved until the young 

 ones were hatched. After making the discovery of this nest, Mr 

 Gilmour was interested by observing the manner in which the 

 parent bird approached her secret treasure. Taking advantage of 

 an overhanging tree, the wary creature invariably perched there 



