CHAP, x.j ILLUSIVE DISHES. 393 



each other to reach food, but I never saw so much as a 

 peck or a blow given. They are very chilly in a cage, 

 and are liable to blindness. [From this it has been 

 supposed by some, that the French used purposely to 

 put out the eyes of the hens before exporting them.] 

 Their beaks sometimes grow till they become cross-bills, 

 and their plumage becomes very dark. In France they 

 are strict birds of passage ; but in Cambridgeshire, in 

 parts of Hampshire, and in Ireland, they remain all the 

 year ; there are many in Ireland. We formerly got all 

 our Quails from France, but in that self-called free 

 country they have recently passed game-laws, and among 

 other most preposterous enactments they have forbidden 

 the exportation of Quails ; we therefore now get them 

 from Sicily, Holland, and Belgium." 



Never mind if we cease to get them at all ; let us 

 encourage native productions instead. If we must have 

 such tit-bits, there are plenty of small deer in the shape 

 of Larks, Wheat-ears, &c., on our downs ; and even if 

 all these should fail us utterly, let us be thankful to be 

 able to fall back upon roast beef. An English lady, on 

 her first visit to Italy, saw with some surprise a dish 

 of very very little birds produced at a table d'hote, and 

 inquired what they were; "Madam," replied a hungry 

 Frenchman, with truth, "ces sont des illusions!" 



