COTURNIX DACTYLISONANS, 



(The auail.) 



By Mr. G. D. ROWLEY. 



Every one has heard of the three Quails of Steenwyk, which saved that city 

 (the key to the province of Drenthe) when besieged by Count Renneberg, on 

 behalf of Philip II., in 1581. Protestant Quails they might be called in 

 real truth. Very small agents cause great events ; for the three being found 

 in the public square were said by the Commandant to be typical of the 

 Trinity, and as Quails had saved the Children of Israel, so now in three 

 weeks (if they only held out) would relief come, which these Quails 

 indicated. And surely enough that valiant Colonel, John Norris the 

 Englishman, did arrive with six thousand Dutchmen and British, Most 

 opportune Quails were those three of Steenwyk, more so than the loyal 

 Larks of Exeter even ((/. YarrelFs 'British Birds/ 4th edit. p. 619). John 

 Lothrop Motley, in the ' Dutch Republic ' (vol. iii. p. 374), tells the tale. 



HoUinshed, in his ' Chronicles ' (vol. i. chap. ii. p. 374), enumerates, 

 among others, " the Quaile (who onelie with men are subject to the falling 

 sicknesse).'' A curious notion. 



I have a sitting of eight Quail's eggs, taken just outside Brighton 

 (June 15th, 1875), and have seen others. But the bird is not common in the 

 county; for Mr. A» E. Knox states ('Ornithological Rambles,' p. 170) that 

 '' it is only an autumnal migratory visitor to Sussex." 



