364 
COMMON QUAIL. 
times found so exhausted, tliat for a few of the 
first days they may be caught with the hand : but 
in no country are they so abundant as in tlie 
Crimea and in some of the Grecian islands, several 
of which have received their names from this cir- 
cumstance. 
During peace great quantities of these birds are 
imported into this country from France for the 
use of the .table, all of which are males, and are 
caught by imitating the cry of the hen. They 
are conveyed by stage coaches, in a large square 
box, divided into five or six compartments, one 
above another, just high enough to admit the 
Quails to stand upright, and each box containing 
about one hundred birds. These boxes have wire 
on the fore-part, and each partition is furnished 
with a small trough for food. May is the usual 
period of importation. 
The females lay from eight to a dozen eggs,* 
of a yellowish colour, blotched and spotted with 
dusky, but subject to great variety in the ground 
colour and disposition of the spots : the young 
are hatched in about three weeks, and follow 
the mother but a very short time. Quails are 
very indolent birds ; they usually sleep through 
the day,* concealed among the tallest grass, lying 
on their sides, with their legs extended, in the 
same spot, even for hours together, and should a 
dog approach, he must absolutely run upon them 
* Latham mentions having seen twenty eggs taken out of 
one nest. 
