86 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



were captured, is peculiarly well situated for intercepting the 

 progress of these voyagers, it being a neck of low land, bounded 

 on one side by the bay, and on the other by a wide stream of 

 water, thus forming a kind of peninsula, encompassed by high 

 lands, upon which the Birds congregate for the purposes of in- 

 cubation, and abandon again for the river-courses early in the 

 autumn. "We do not doubt that, with properly devised instru- 

 ments, much larger numbers might have been taken during the 

 same season at this spot, as the Birds were very abundant in- 

 deed, and the materials used in their capture were of the simplest 

 and roughest character, and very little or no attention given 

 to their skilful adjustment by the parties setting them. We 

 need not, however, make any further comments as to the pro- 

 bability of this number being captured in one season, when it 

 is well known that the Quails of the Old World (not more pro- 

 lific than the American Partridge) assemble in such innumera- 

 ble bodies, at the same period of emigration, that one hundred 

 thousand have been taken in one day, within the space of four 

 or five miles, along the western coast of the kingdom of Naples. 

 About the time of their first appearance at Alexandria, after 

 crossing the Mediterranean, such multitudes are exposed for 

 sale in the markets, that three or four may be bought for a 

 medina, a piece of money less than two cents in value. Whe- 

 ther there be such numbers of Quails in these parts at present, 

 we are not able to say ; but a few years back such was the 

 case, and a writer informs us, "That so completely surfeited 

 with this game have the crews of merchant vessels become, 

 that they were forced, in some instances, to prefer complaints 

 against their captains, at the consul's office, for the purpose of 

 obtaining other kinds of food; or, in other words, for a return 

 to their salt junk and bean soup."* 



The nets commonly used by our country people are very 

 simple in their construction, often nothing more than an old fish 



* Since -writing the above, we find, in the Spirit of the Times, a letter from a 

 correspondent in Iowa Territory, stating that he netted, in one season, ten thou- 

 sand Partridges, in the neighborhood of Burlington, a town of that country, the 

 truth of which we do not for a moment doubt, for it only confirms the reports 

 that we have before heard of the immense numbers of these birds in those 

 localities. 



