COMMON QUAIL. 405 



quence the Bishop of Quails. M. Temminck says that in 

 spring such prodigious numbers of Quails alight on the 

 western shores of the kingdom of Naples, about Nettuno, 

 that one hundred thousand are taken in a day. They also 

 arrive in spring in similar numbers on the shores of Pro- 

 vence, so fatigued, that for the first days they allow them- 

 selves to be taken by the hand. Sonnini states that they 

 arrive in Egypt in September. 



With these facts before us, considering the positive tes- 

 timony of the Psalmist that the unexpected supply of food 

 to the Israelites was a bird, and that bird, agreeably to the 

 Septuagint and Josephus, a Quail, that only one species of 

 Quail migrates in prodigious numbers, and that species the 

 subject of the present notice, we are authorized to pro- 

 nounce the Coturnix dactylisonans to be the identical 

 species with which the Israelites were fed. We have 

 here proof of the perpetuation of an instinct through 3300 

 years,* not pervading a whole species, but that part of 

 a species existing within certain geographical limits ; an 

 instinct characterised by a peculiarity which modern ob- 

 servers have also noticed, of making their migratory flight 

 by night ; " And it came to pass, that at even,-J- the 

 Quails came up and covered the camp." J As might be 

 expected, we see the most ancient of all historical works 

 and natural history reflecting attesting lights on each other. 



It is probable that these small defenceless birds fly only 

 by night to avoid the attacks of birds of prey ; in crossing 

 seas, they must of course continue their flight by night as 

 well as by day. I am aware, however, from personal ob- 

 servation, that the Grus Orientalis, whose size secures it 

 from the attacks of other birds, also migrates during the 



* 1491 years before Christ. t Query " night ? " 



Exodus xvi. 13. 



