CHAP. x.J DO NOT ALL MIGRATE. 381 



fall among their tents : even round about their habita- 

 tion. So they did eat, and were well filled ; for he 

 gave them their desire : they were not disappointed of 

 their lust."* But what is so extraordinary in the 

 migrations of the Quail is, that all the birds do not 

 migrate, like Storks, and Cranes, and Swallows, and 

 Cuckoos, and so on, but in all the countries where 

 they are found considerable numbers remain to be the 

 parents of future swarms. Even in Great Britain some 

 continue all the year round, without feeling the mys- 

 terious impulse to return southwards!. When they do 

 stream forth to cover the land, it seems as if the lavish 

 bounty of Providence chose at those periods to scatter, 

 with open hand, an abundant supply of food throughout 

 the expectant nations a feast to the hungry. Who 

 can tell how many shipwrecked mariners, escaped with 

 their bare lives from the squalls of the Mediterranean, 

 how many famishing families, isolated in the Archi- 



* Ps. Ixxviii. 28-30. 



+ " We should be deceived in supposing that the emigrations of 

 these birds are determined by the cooling of the atmosphere : these 

 migrations, which are often performed by Partridges also, are deter- 

 mined by the locality and by the dearth of alimentary substances ; 

 for we know that even the Quail of Europe, that bird whose periodic 

 change of place seems an indispensable need, is stationary in some 

 countries of the> globe, where it never migrates." Temminck, Hist. 

 Nat. des Pig. et Grail., torn. iii. p. 463. 



The following passage proves that they are sometimes settled in 

 their localities in India : " In a valley near Jangamar, there are 

 astonishing numbers of Quails and Partridges, for the maintenance of 

 which the Khan causes millet and other seeds to be sown, that they 

 may have plenty of food ; and a number of people are appointed to 

 take care that no person may catch any of these birds, which are so 

 tame, that they will flock around their keepers at a whistle, to re- 

 ceive food from their hands. There are also a great number of small 

 huts built in different parts of the valley, for shelter to these birds, 

 during the severity of winter, where they are regularly fed by the 

 keepers." Marco Polo : Kerr's Voyages. 



