386 BREEDING IN CAPTIVITY. [CHAP. x. 



or otherwise disposed of: what should be a loss to their 

 wives and children, becomes, in truth, a real gain ; 

 whereas the kind and faithful Partridge fulfils his duty, 

 and is respected accordingly. The little Quails take 

 after their parents ; as soon as they are strong enough, 

 they separate with perfect indifference, and it is rare 

 afterwards to find two together ; they prefer to pursue 

 each his or her solitary devices, till a spontaneous im- 

 pulse collects them in bands immediately preparatory 

 to their migratory movements. We have by observation 

 verified Temminck's assertion that the Quail moults 

 twice a year : the old ones moult in August, the time 

 when many (for we have seen that some are permanent 

 visitors) f would proceed southwards ; in the spring 

 both young and old moult a second time, before the 

 commencement of that flight which brings the great 

 body into Europe. The only case of the common Quail 

 breeding in confinement in England, that I have been 

 able to ascertain, is given in the subjoined note * ; 



* In March, 1849, a pair of Quails which for two winters had 

 been kept in the house in a cage, were placed by Lady llowley in 

 one of the compartments of a small mew on the lawn at Tendring 

 Hall in Suffolk. The mew is bricked two feet from the ground, 

 wired in front and at the sides, closed at the back, and partly covered 

 overhead ; several pairs of Doves were kept in the other divisions of 

 the mew. 



The weather was severe in the ensuing April, with sharp frosts 

 during several nights. The Qnails, however, did not appear to mind 

 the cold ; neither did they seem to care for the constant cooing of 

 the Doves. In May the hen laid ten eggs, and hatched nine of 

 them in June. Four of the young birds died during the first moult- 

 ing; the remaining five lived through the winter of 1849-50. In 

 the month of February the birds fought excessively, and one of them 

 was so much injured that it died. The others were immediately 

 separated in pairs ; but all the young birds have since died, either 

 from want of variety of food, or from some other cause unknown. 



The old birds were fed on wheat, with a little hemp-seed, and 

 their young ones with Partridge food, and a little chalk was occasion- 



