CONTENTS. Xlll 



Ease with which it may be stalked. Proposed Emeu parks. 

 Little hope for future Emeus. The refuge of domestication. 

 Dinornithes, or Wonder Birds. Their discovery and history. 

 Adaptation of the various species to their locality in New Zea- 

 land. Their great variety. Their recent existence. How con- 

 gregated in New Zealand. Professor Owen's conjecture. Any 

 hope that they still survive ? A few glimpses of evidence. The 

 latest news. Habits and propagation of the Emeu. The Emeus 

 at Knowsley. Follow the seasons of the southern hemisphere. 

 Injudicious proceedings. Their diet. Peculiarities of their 

 plumage .352 



CHAPTER X. 



THE COMMON OR DACTYL-SOUNDING QUAIL. 



Emblem of mediocrity. Explanation of specific name. Call 

 note. Their migrations. Immense multitudes. Their destruc- 

 tion. Ancient history. Identical with the Quail of Scripture. 

 Do not universally migrate. Welcome feasts afforded by their 

 flight. Quails in captivity. Their fate in an aviary. Distinc- 

 tion between Quails and Partridges. Unvarying plumage 

 throughout the Old World. Whether polygamous. Careless of 

 their young. Their double moult. Breeding in confinement. 

 Diet. Subject to epilepsy. Estimation as food. Modes of 

 cooking and of fatting. Quail fights. Distinction of sex. 

 Pick-werwick. Quails in process of fatting. Necessaries of 

 life . 374 



CHAPTER XL 



THE ORTOLAN. 



The fatting of wild birds largely practised by the ancients. 

 Good old-fashioned fare. Mock and true Ortolans. Not native 

 Britons. Merits as cage birds. Their song, plumage, and diet. 

 Variable states of fatness. Effects of revolutions. Beau 

 Tibbe and his Ortolan , . 394 



