QUAIL 



used as fighting birds much as gamecocks were once 

 used in England in many countries and for long ages. 

 The Greeks and Romans fought mains with them, and 

 there is a story that the Emperor Augustus once 

 punished a prefect of Egypt with death for having 

 estroyed and served at a banquet a famous fighting 

 quail. The Chinese, to this day, match quails one 

 against another, as also do the Italians in some parts 

 of their country. 



The common quail has an immense migratory range. 

 During summer it is to be found scattered over the 

 vast regions of North Europe and much of Northern 

 Asia. Near Britain it has been observed as far north 

 as the Faroe Isles. Before autumn it wings its flight 

 again far south and east into warmer quarters, its mi- 

 gration extending to India where, in the north-west, 

 it is found in very large numbers and even as far 

 south as the Cape Colony, where, in certain seasons, it 

 is extraordinarily plentiful. Besides the true or com- 

 mon quail (Coturnix commtmis) two other species are 

 found in South Africa the Cape Quail (C. Capensis} 

 and the Harlequin Quail (C. Delegorguei) ; while in 

 India, China, and Japan yet other species are found. 

 New Zealand had formerly a quail of its own (C. Novce 

 Zealandice), which, forty or fifty years ago, was shot 

 by the colonists in large numbers. This bird, it is to 

 be feared, has been persecuted out of existence. Small 

 relations of the true quail, known as swamp and painted 

 quails, are found in various parts of the world. The 

 bustard-quails, the tiniest game-birds in existence, some- 

 times known as hemipodes, but commonly referred to 

 by sportsmen as button-quails, are found also in Africa, 

 various parts of Asia, the Malay Archipelago, and 

 Australia. The quail itself is very much like a part- 

 ridge in miniature. But the still more diminutive 



105 



