COMMON QUAIL. 407 



The female has no dark half circular marks descending 

 down the sides of the neck, nor the black patch in front ; 

 but the feathers on her breast are strongly marked with 

 a small dark spot on each side of the light straw-coloured 

 shaft. 



The young birds of the year resemble the adult female. 

 The young males do not acquire the black patch on the 

 front of the neck till their second year. 



In the illustration which precedes this subject, the figure 

 in the foreground represents the male bird ; that behind 

 and a little to the left, the female ; and in reference to 

 the unusual occurrence of Quails in the southern parts of 

 England during winter, noticed at page 401, I may men- 

 tion that early in February 1844, I saw six Quails at a 

 poulterer's shop in London, which had been sent up from 

 Cambridgeshire, and as these birds had no wound about 

 them, I had no doubt they had been caught by fowlers 

 when drawing nets for Larks. Of these six, three were 

 females. A writer in the Zoologist, page 871, refers to 

 the late appearance of Quails in Oxfordshire in the follow- 

 ing terms. " In consequence of some fields of corn re- 

 maining in this part of England, still standing in Decem- 

 ber, 1844, Quails did not leave us till very late. After 

 several days of severe frost, I heard of a pair having been 

 seen in a field, in the parish of Hornsey, near this town. 

 I cannot remember the exact date, but it was some time 

 in December ; and in the last week in November, I saw 

 a pair in this market, where they have been more plentiful 

 than usual this autumn, which had been killed down in 

 the fens. The birds seen at Hornsey, had not been driven 

 away by intense frost, which, curious to say, prevailed 

 while the barley where they lay was being carried/ 1 H. 

 T. Frere, C. C. C. Oxford. 



