PHASIANID^. 2G9 



almost cut off, is the grasshopper, and of this insect it consumes great 

 numbers, and, according to Col. Montagu, finds in them a valuable ph3-sic 

 and tonic. Other insects, ants, and ants' eggs in particular, the seeds of 

 various weeds and grasses, and grain, with the tender tops of various 

 plants, form its food. In the autumn the turnip-fields are its accustomed 

 resort ; the high leaves afford it shelter and concealment, and beneath them 

 it picks up small beetles and insects in abundance. But in moorland 

 districts it is not often that the coveys are found among the turnips, the 

 birds preferring the rough grass and rushes of the moory fields and the 

 cover of the furze, and in these places they lie better throughout the 

 season ; and long after it has been (^uite useless to attempt to approach 

 them in the remaining turnips on better cultivated lands, we have had 

 excellent sport in such places on the hills, making good bags quite up to 

 the end of January. 



Early in the month one September we had the good fortune to account 

 for a whole covey of thirteen birds, in a small turnip-field in North Devon. 

 We were shooting over a magnificent young setter, only eleven months 

 old, so that it was his first season with the gun. He made a point directly 

 we entered the field, which was about five acres in extent, and we dropped 

 a brace. The remaining birds then scattered all over the field, and this 

 clever young dog, admirably broken to drop to shot, to wing, and, at a 

 sign, to draw on and to stand dead or crippled birds, made them in the 

 steadiest fashion, one after the other, and we got them all, the last bird 

 being the old cock of the covey seen by us, as the dog was standing him, 

 stpiatting beneath a turnip-leaf. He rose and did all he could in the 

 way of ra])id fiight, skimming low above the ground, but onlj- to fall, and 

 to be in his turn drawn on and pointed as he lay dead upon the ground, 

 the last of his family, by this matchless dog, pure white all over, without 

 a single spot upon him, of the Laverack breed. We have possessed many 

 a clever dog, both before and since, but this was the best performance we 

 ever witnessed. 



After October Partridges acquire a musty hay-like flavour, from feeding, 

 we think, on the seeds of certain grasses, and are comparatively worthless 

 for the spir. 



Quail. Cofurniv communis, Bonnat. 



A summer migrant, of irregular appearance, sometimes remaining 

 throughout the winter, but most freijuently obtained in autumn. It 

 annually resorts to Lundy Island during the jjcriods of migration, and in 

 1870 Mr. Heaven knew of thirteen or fourteen nests Ihero. In the fol- 

 lowing autumn and winter (iuail were unusually lunncrous throughout 

 the county (Zool. 1871, p. 2.12I). 



A seas(jn seldom passes without a few Quail Ix'iii::,^ noticed in the S.W. 

 of England, or without one or two being procured in the winter months, 

 and at irregular intervals a " (iuail Year " comes round, when a larger 

 migration to this country takes place in the spring, and nests arc then 



