CHAP, x.] WANT OF AFFECTION. 885 



unable to keep more than a pair associated together in 

 the same cage : the supernumerary birds, whether cocks 

 or hens, being soon worried to death by the others. 

 When our hen Quail accidentally broke her thigh, we 

 fancied that the male bird showed greater signs of at- 

 tachment and interest while his companion lay disabled 

 on the floor of the cage, than would have been exhibited 

 by most polygamous birds, and these little marks of at- 

 tention were continued till her recovery by the uniting 

 of the fractured bone. It may be that the hens are 

 jealous amongst themselves, and will not bear the pre- 

 sence of a rival. It is not every female that, like the 

 Domestic Hen, or the Wives of the Sultan, will quietly 

 allow their lord to bestow his attentions, with their 

 cognizance, upon other favourites : though how it is 

 managed at Constantinople we can hardly guess, unless 

 the internal arrangements of the seraglio are upon a 

 principle that has furnished a hint for the model prison 

 at Pentonville. From what can be learned of the wild 

 habits of the Quail, although he is at times so unreason- 

 ably troublesome to the hens, we should call him nei- 

 ther monogamic nor polygamic, but agamic, or not 

 marrying at all, from the very short and slight attach- 

 ment which subsists between the sexes. " The male," 

 says Temminck, " abandons the female for ever, as soon 

 as she begins to sit, taking no interest in the brood ; 

 we may, therefore, without injury to the young family, 

 decoy and snare the males in the last days of July and 

 the beginning of August: the same sport carried on 

 with Partridges at the same time of year would de- 

 stroy whole coveys." Here is a lesson for improvident, 

 negligent, and spendthrift fathers of families : it mat- 

 ters not whether they be drawn for soldiers, transported, 



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