THE COMMON QUAIL. 71 



appeared partial to backward oat -stubbles on poor swampy soils, 

 just verging on the borders of the great red bogs. After the first 

 flight, they generally lay well : the grand point was to drive them 

 towards the bog, and, if possible, to scatter them over its surface. 

 What capital sport they then afforded in combination with snipe, 

 plover, teal, and wild ducks, the natural denizens of the swamp, 

 which usually contributed to my bag on such occasions ! " 

 p. 169. 



The following incidental notices may be added : — Feb. 1, 1842. 

 The chief dealer in quails in Belfast assured me that the number 

 of these birds purchased by him in the last three months, or 

 throughout the winter, would average about three dozen a week ; 

 on one day five dozen were brought to him. Being fat and in 

 high condition, they were readily sold at from 8^. to 1*. a brace. 

 Mr. E. Ball, writing from Dublin on Feb. 24, ] 845, remarked, 

 that " great numbers of jack-snipes and quails have been for the 

 last few days on sale here. One petty dealer who brings a basket 

 of game occasionally for sale to the Castle, had to-day thirty-six 

 jack-snipes and fifteen quails, and there have been many large 

 bunches of them in dealers' shops about town.'" There had not 

 been any severe weather in Ireland before or at this period.* 

 On the 20th of Oct. 1846, a gentleman of my acquaintance 

 shot five brace of quails within an acre of ground at Ballylesson, 

 and bagged two or three more brace in the neighbouring fields, 

 where they were numerous. On Christmas day that year, when 

 there was a slight covering of snow on the ground, and severe 

 frost had prevailed for some days previously, ten of these 

 birds were reckoned at one view beneath a corn-stack at Mertoun : 

 — these localities are within a few miles of Belfast. Quails were 

 very numerous during the winter of 1846-47, in the counties of 

 Down and Antrim ; fifty or sixty of them being occasionally 

 brought from the country in one morning to the chief game 



* Montagu, writing from the south of England, remarks of quails, that — " In 

 October they leave us, and return south, leaving some few (probably of a later brood) 

 behind to brave the severity of our winter." To this Mr. Selby is disposed to assent. 

 In Ireland, however, a fail- proportion of adult birds of both sexes is shot throughout 

 the winter. 



