284 THE QUAIL. 



It has long been a received opinion among sportsmen, as well a* 

 among naturalists, that the female Partridge has none of the bay 

 feathers of the breast like the male. This, however, on dissection, 

 has proved- to be a mistake; for Mr. Montagu happening to kill nine 

 birds in one day, with very little variation as to the bay mark on the 

 breast, he was led to open them all, and discovered that five of them 

 were females. On carefully examining the plumage, he found that 

 the males could only be known by the 

 superior brightness of color about the 

 head; which alone, after the first or 

 pecond year, seems to be the true mark 

 of distinction. 



The California Quail is a beautiful 

 species with a small feather by way of 



Oil itS head. ' 



THE QUAIL. 



The bill of this bird is of a dusky color. The feathers of the head 

 are black, edged with a rusty brown. The crown of the head is di 

 vided by a whitish yellow line, beginning at the bill, and running 

 along the hind part of the neck to the back. Above each eye there 

 is another line of similar color. The chin and throat are of a dirty 

 white. The cheeks are spotted with brown and white. The breast 

 is of a pale yellowish red, spotted with black. The scapular feathers, 

 and those on the back, are marked in the middle with a long, pale, 

 yellow line; and on their sides with ferruginous and black bars. The 

 coverts of the wings are reddish brown, elegantly barred with paler 

 lines, bounded on each side with black. The exterior side of the first 

 quill-feathers is white; and of the others, dusky spotted with red. 



These birds general/y s^eep during the clay, concealed in the tallest 

 grass; lying on their sides, with their legs extended. So very indolent 

 are these birds, that a Dog must absolutely run upon them before they 

 are flushed ; and when they are forced upon wing, they seldom fly far. 

 Quails are easily drawn within reach of a net, by a call imitating 

 their cry, which is not unlike the words whit, whit, whit: this is done 

 with an instrument called a quail-pipe. 



Quails are found in several parts of Great Britain ; and the time of 

 their migration from there is August or September. They are sup- 

 posed to winter in Africa; and they return early in the spring. At 

 their arrival in Alexandria, such multitudes are exposed in the mar- 

 kets for sale, that three or four may sometimes be bought for a medina 

 (a coin less than three farthings in value.) Crews of merchant- vessels 

 have been fed upon them; and complaints have sometimes been laid at 

 the consul's office, by mariners against their captains, for giving them 

 nothing but Quails to eat. 



With wind and weather in their favor, these birds have been known, 

 in the course of one night, to perform a flight of fifty leagues acrosi 

 the Black Sea ; a wonderful distance for so short-winged a bird. 



Such prodigious numbers of Quails have sometimes appeared on 



