A FLIGHT OF QUAILS. 



to watch them. Each little Turk of a 

 husband keeps a perfect harem of demure 

 brown hens, looking slily askance from the 

 corners of their eyes, and watches over them 

 close by with all the jealousy of a Mahmoud 

 or a Sultan Soleyman. The rival who tries 

 to poach on his lordship's preserves has, 

 indeed, a hard time of it ; he will retire, 

 well pecked, from his rash encounter. Quails, 

 in fact, are still in the Mohammedan stage 

 of social evolution, while our more advanced 

 and enlightened English partridges have 

 attained already to a civilized and Western 

 domestic economy. 



57 



