76 TETRAONIDiE. 



instead the comparatively smaller ones of rushes and Atriplex 

 patula ; no insects were found. 



On examination of the food contained in about thirty quails 

 shot at various times and places during winter and early spring, 

 seven-eighths of it was found to consist of the seeds of weeds, 

 such as the different species of plantain (Plantago), persiearia 

 {Polygonum, P. minus, &c), dock {Rumex), wild vetch [Vicia, 

 &c), chickweed {Stettaria, &c). The crop of one bird being 

 filled with the seeds of Stettaria media, I reckoned a certain 

 number of them ; and judging of the rest accordingly found that 

 there could not be less in it than 3,500. 



The last meal that one epicure quail had indulged in consisted 

 wholly of the nutritious slug, Limax agrestis, eleven of which had 

 been sacrificed to his appetite. This was the only instance in 

 which I ever found the remains of animal life in the stomach 

 of the quail ; but here again, as in the destruction of the 

 seeds of weeds, we find this bird benefitting the farmer. The 

 only other matter consisted, in two instances, of large or garden 

 peas ; in one or two others, of green vegetable matter, and a few 

 grains of wheat; all of the gizzards contained sand or fragments 

 of stone. 



In the month of August I have met with quails in Italy. 

 Some that were served up at table at Yaletta (Malta) on the 

 19th of April, 1841, and likewise a quantity of them, hawked 

 about the streets, had been brought from Naples. I was told 

 that a few of these birds remain permanently in the island of 

 Malta. On the passage of H.M.S. Beacon thence to the Morea, 

 occupying from the 21st to the 27th of April, a single quail only 

 alighted on the vessel. The great body of them had previously 

 crossed the Mediterranean. On the 29th of that month I sprang 

 a brace near Navarino. Mr. Wilkinson, jan. of Syra, son of the 

 well known and highly esteemed British consul in that island, 

 informed me that quails are not seen on their autumnal migration 

 at Syra when the wind is southerly, but when it is north-east they 

 alight in great numbers from the 10th to the 30th of September. 

 Their coming is always announced by the call of the heron, which 



