404 TETRAONIDJ). 



is constantly rendered by the Septuagint ogrwyofbqrga, a 

 large kind of Quail. Aristotle, indeed, calls the Rail 

 (Eallus and Crex) ortygometra ; but on the whole it is to 

 be inferred from Bochart that the Greeks used the word 

 rather to indicate the size of the ogru%, than as descriptive 

 of a different bird; and Josephus considers ogrvyopJirga 

 and oJ5ry synonymous, and states that Quails abound on 

 the gulf of the Red Sea ;* and we know that they abound 

 in Egypt, Barbary, Asia Minor, and at certain seasons in 

 Europe at the present day. 



There is another mode to connect the bird of Scripture 

 with the Coturnioc dactylisonans, and this is readily done by 

 the simple fact of its being the only species of Quail that 

 migrates in multitudes ; indeed we have not any satisfactory 

 account that any other species of Quail is migratory. Aris- 

 totle mentions the habit ; and Pliny states they sometimes 

 alight on vessels in the Mediterranean and sink them ! Be- 

 lon found Quails alight in autumn on a vessel bound from 

 Rhodes to Alexandria ; they were passing from the north to 

 the south, and had wheat in their craws. In the preceding 

 spring, sailing from Zante to the Morea, he saw flights of 

 Quails going from the south northwards, Buffon relates that 

 M. le Commandant Godelun saw Quails constantly passing 

 Malta during certain winds in May, and repassing in 

 September ; and that they flew by night. Tournefort says 

 that almost all the isles of the Archipelago are covered with 

 them in certain times of the year. In the commencement 

 of autumn, such great quantities are captured in the isle of 

 Capri,-)- near Naples, as in former times to afford the bishop 

 the chief part of his revenue ; and he was called in conse- 



* Lib. iii. cap. 1. 



f On this small island alone, called Goat Island, at the entrance of the Bay of 

 Naples, 160,000 Quails are recorded to have been netted in one season. 



