A FLIGHT OF QUAILS. 



still further north, to Germany, Scandinavia, 

 England, and Scotland. At one time they 

 were far from uncommon visitors in our 

 southern counties ; but brick and mortar 

 have disgusted them, and their calls are 

 nowadays liker to angels' visits than in the 

 eighteenth century. Yet a few still loiter 

 through the winter in Devonshire or Kerry ; 

 while in summer they still reach to the 

 Orkneys, Shetland, and the Outer Hebrides. 

 Beautiful as quails are, both to look upon 

 and to eat, they are not personally amiable 

 or admirable creatures. Their character is 

 full of those piquant antitheses which seven- 

 teenth-century satire delighted to discover 

 in the human subject. They are gregarious, 

 but unsociable ; fond of company, yet 

 notoriously pugnacious ; abandoned poly- 

 gamists, with frequent lapses into the 

 strictest monogamy ; fighters destitute of 

 the sense of honour ; faithless spouses, but 

 devoted, affectionate, and careful mothers. 

 I fancy, too, they must have a wonderful 



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