THE COMMON QUAIL. 69 



It is a remarkable fact, that, while during the last half century the 

 cultivation of England has been so much extended and improved, 

 the quail should have decreased, while, during that period it 

 has from the same cause increased in Ireland ; in which island, 

 too, there has been a decided augmentation of late years, to 

 the numbers, remaining during winter. In the wheat districts 

 around Belfast, quails were always common. In a part of the 

 country, stretching towards the mountain base, where oats had 

 been grown in quantity, they did not appear until the introduc- 

 tion of wheat ; but after this grain had ceased to be cultivated 

 there, the birds continued in the district. In a letter from J. V. 

 Stewart, Esq., dated Rockhill, Letterkenny, Feb. 3, 1837, it was 

 remarked, that " quails are only found in the most improved 

 lowland parts of the county Donegal ; where some years since 

 they were very rare, they are now becoming annually much more 

 common, which is to be accounted for by the increased growth of 

 wheat." In the year 1837, I learned, from the late T. E. 

 Neligan, Esq. of Tralee, that " within the preceding eight or ten 

 years the quail had become much more common in the county of 

 Kerry, within which period cultivation had much extended." It 

 is very singular that they should thus keep pace with the cultiva- 

 tion of grain, even to the north-west and south-west extremities 

 of the island, while the opposite result prevails in Great Britain. 

 The slovenly system of farming, unfortunately too common in 

 Ireland, is, however, greatly in their favour, as the seed of 

 weeds among the stubble, supplies these birds during winter and 

 at other seasons, with abundance of food. 



Although fields of grain are the quail's chief resort, clover 

 fields in grain districts are sometimes its favourite haunt in spring 

 and summer ; meadows also, indeed, occasionally are so. In an 

 extensive meadow district near Belfast, I one season heard them 

 daily calling from the end of March to that of May; and my 

 attention was attracted by the notes of numbers of them early in 

 August, in that great district of meadow-land near Toome, over 

 which Lough Neagh spreads its winter floods. During the 

 latter season the quail is often met with in turnip fields. 



