QUAILS. 109 



protrudes the muzzle of his long musket through 

 another hole, and firing upon the birds, as they feed 

 in covies upon the ground, kills a great many of 

 them*. 



Our limits will not allow us to dwell much longer 

 on this family of birds, which includes Quails ; but 

 we cannot leave them without showing how strongly 

 modern travellers corroborate the account given in 

 the Scriptures, of the prodigious numbers of Quails, 

 and the mode of drying them for food. 



" And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and 

 brought Quails from the sea, and let them fall by the 

 camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it 

 were a day's journey on the other side, round about 

 the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the 

 face of the earth. And the people stood up all that 

 day, and all that night, and all the next day, and 

 they gathered the Quails ; he that gathered least 

 gathered ten homers; and they spread them all abroad 

 for themselves round about the camp." Numbers, 

 xi. 31, 32. 



Their coming with the wind, their immense quan- 

 tities, covering a circle of thirty or forty miles, and 

 being spread in the sun for drying, appeared so im- 

 possible to one of our most learned commentators on 

 the Bible t, that he was persuaded our translation 

 was incorrect, and that instead of Quails, locusts 

 were meant. Here, however, we have the evidence 

 of eye-witnesses. " J Near Constantinople, in the 

 Autumn, the sun is often nearly obscured by the 



* Franklin's Constantinople, vol. ii. 



f- Bishop Patrick. 



J Stade's Travels in Turkey, vol. i. 



