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here. They were supposed to leave in September, but the 

 author believes that the majority left before the shooting 

 season, as he has often found broods in the sixties which 

 disappeared before the opening of partridge shooting. 



They cannot be forced, or even encouraged, to migrate to this 

 country. Instinct once lost cannot be re-created by any act of 

 ours. The King tried turning out a lot of quail at Sandring- 

 ham, where they bred, but being spared they migrated, and not 

 one of them came back. Still, although His Majesty is not 

 likely to try this experiment again, it seems to the author to 

 have proved the possibility of success, provided ambition does 

 not soar too high. It shows that if we had quail leagues in the 

 various counties, we might greatly add to our sport by buying 

 up the imported live quail and releasing them. If we could get 

 Hungarian partridges at ninepence or a shilling each, who would 

 not buy them ? The quail is quite as fertile of sport and breeds 

 as freely, and after being turned down in the spring wanders no 

 more before breeding than the partridge that has also been 

 turned down, but in the autumn. Consequently, although it 

 does not always pay a single estate to turn out either, it would 

 pay the sporting interest of a county to do it. Quail lay from 

 10 to 20 eggs, rear most of their young, and 10,000 of these 

 birds can be had in the spring for about .400. That is not 

 much for an addition of 10,000 game birds to a county in a 

 time when each head killed costs from 33. 6d. to 55. ; but when 

 the chances of the breeding of these 10,000 are taken into 

 account, it becomes a likely 50,000 and a possible 100,000 extra 

 game birds. What does it matter that those not shot are lost 

 to the county? They will be re-imported from Africa and Italy 

 another season, and can be again bought alive, instead of being 

 killed for the London hotels and clubs. We are fond of 

 deploring the extermination of these migrants, but the receiver 

 is as bad as the catcher, especially when he eats in the breeding 

 season that which he professes to wish to preserve. Even on 

 the lowest ground of self-interest, a quail turned out in 

 England is worth many dead ones. 



The scientific name of the quail is Coturnix communis, and 



