CHAP, x.] THE QUAIL OF SCRIPTURE. 379 



that lay was gone up, behold upon the face of the wil- 

 derness there lay a small round thing, as small as the 

 hoar frost on the ground."-' The " small round thing " 

 has of late had a very remarkable and unlooked-for 

 illustration, for an account of which the reader is re- 

 ferred to the Gardener's Chronicle of September 29, 

 and to the Athenaeum of October 6, 1849. As to the 

 Quails, there have been various hypercritical cavils. 

 Scott's notes tell us that " there are different opinions 

 concerning the meaning of the word translated Quails. 

 Some imagine that they were a species of locusts ; 

 (others even fancy that they were flying fish ! ) but the 

 language of Scripture uniformly leads us to consider 

 them as wild fowl, of whatever species they might be." 

 But there seems no good reason to suspect any mis- 

 translation in those passages of the Old Testament 

 which relate to Quails : their great though partial 

 abundance continues to this day. It was left for the 

 sound knowledge of Colonel Sykes, who is quoted by 

 Mr. Yarrell to set the matter at rest in a very few 

 words. " There is another mode to connect the bird of 

 Scripture with the Coturnix dactylisonans, and this is 

 readily done by the simple fact of its being the only 

 species of Quail that migrates in multitudes ; indeed 

 we have not any satisfactory account that any other 

 species of Quail is migratory. Aristotle mentions the 

 habit ; and Pliny states they sometimes alight on 

 vessels in the Mediterranean, and sink them!"f The 

 joint weight of our own pair of Quails is seven and a 

 half ounces. We will therefore propose the following 

 sum to our arithmetical friends : given the number of 



* Exodus xvi. 12, 13, 14. f British Birds, vol. ii. p. 359. 



