and the Maritime Provinces. 101 



There is a curious fluctuation in the numbers of this species from year 

 to year, which has scarcely been explained. In some years they are quite 

 abundant, and the hopes of the sportsman and epicure rise in proportion, 

 when they become less plentiful, and even in certain localities almost entirely 

 disappear. Various causes have been referred to as producing this irregu- 

 larity. Generally it is supposed that severe winters destroy them, the birds 

 being confined beneath crusted snows until they perish ; this is the probable 

 cause of their disappearance, although it may be said that they are some- 

 times very scarce in seasons which succeed a mild, open winter. Some ob- 

 servers claim that in the Eastern States the quail is sometimes migratory and 

 that its emigration from given localities to others accounts for its scarcity. 



The quail furnishes the most delicious food of all the gallinaceous 

 birds, and is, in many respects, the most interesting. The nest is artfully 

 concealed beneath some overhanging tuft of grass or weeds, and the female 

 sometimes deposits the extraordinary number of twenty-four eggs, but 

 usually from twelve to eighteen. The young are reared with the utmost 

 care and attended with the greatest solicitude. They remain together 

 until spring, passing the night on the ground huddled closely together, 

 and, by some it is said, in a compact circle, each bird with its head out- 

 ward, so that on being alarmed, each one flies in a direct line, and the 

 bevy is thus scattered and eludes the threatened danger. After being 

 separated by an alarm they are re-assembled by a call uttered for that 

 purpose, which for its sweet and tender expression is unsurpassed, and 

 when once heard is never forgotten. 



incubation these birds should have sought some seclusion in which to rear 

 their brood, and that while so retired they should return rapidly to the wild 

 state. This is every day's experience with domestic poultry. They all 

 indulge in the propensity to ' steal their nest,' as it is called, and at such 

 times are shy and wary. This probably accounts for the quails, although 

 it is not unlikely that their tameness may have led to their destruction at 

 the hand of some thoughtless or vicious person. There is little doubt that 

 if, during the breeding season, they had been confined to the range of a 

 proper inclosure, adapted to their wants, and protected from intrusion and 

 regularly fed, and brought in contact with a kind protection, they would 

 have reared their young, and that in a few seasons their progeny been 

 brought to a state of complete domestication. The experiment is well 

 worth trying on a scale to combine every possible chance of success, as 

 the benefits to flow from the accomplishment of such an object can scarcely 

 be estimated. While success has attended the culture, and perhaps it is 

 not going too far to say the domestication of the most desirable species of 

 fish, we need not despair of making a valuable acquisition to the poultry 

 yard in the person of this well known and universal favorite. The effort 

 to do so would furnish to any person able to give the time and means, or 

 to any society having for its object the protection of game or the advance- 

 ment of agriculture, a delightful and interesting occupation, and a valuable 

 field for observation and study." 



