104 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



bad word been said against him. If the Israelites in the 

 wilderness so goi;ged themselves with quail flesh as to breed 

 a pestilence, that was their fault, not that of the delicate 

 little bird. Higher critics, or lower, I forget which, have 

 suggested that possibly, the birds that came to the children 

 of Israel were not quail, but Syrrhaptes paradoxus, Pallas's 

 sand-grouse, but that does not affect the argument. 



It would be difficult to find any large stretch of country 

 between the Arctic and the Antarctic circles where the 

 quail has never been seen. He is a venturesome little 

 fellow and goes everywhere. In England, however, his 

 treatment has been such as to suggest to him that there may 

 be safer quarters elsewhere, and the result is that quails 

 have become somewhat rare. In Ireland, the more reasonable 

 legislation has had its reward, and there the birds are still 

 fairly numerous; indeed, the quail has sometimes been called 

 the partridge of Ireland. In China when circumstances are 

 favourable, quails are to be found in immense numbers. In 

 the lands surrounding the Mediterranean they are caught 

 whilst migrating, not singly or by dozens, but by hundreds 

 of thousands. Modern man in western lands, and even here 

 in the east, is accustomed to consider the quail somewhat of 

 a delicacy. It is not without interest, therefore, that we 

 read that in some of these Mediterranean lands, work-people 

 make a special provision in their agreements that they shall 

 not be given more than a certain fixed amount of quail's flesh, 

 just as in England, centuries ago, apprentices had it inscribed 

 on their indentures that they were not to be fed on salmon 

 more than a specified number of times per week! Times 

 change, and we with them. 



Thequailis so very familiar that little detailed description 

 of him is needed. He is the smallest of the true game birds, 

 measuring over all not more than about eight inches. How 

 very complete a protection may be his covering of ruddy 

 brown andstraw colour, withdarkshadings,isknownb5'all who 

 haveeverhadtolookforhimamongst his natural surroundings. 

 I once dropped one stone dead close bj' a grave mound. 

 There was, therefore, no doubt as to its whereabouts, and 

 yet when I came to look, no sign of the bird could I see. I 

 walked round and round the mound. Five or six times this 

 was repeated, and finally, just as the search was about to be 

 given up, and as I had returned to the spot where as I 

 thought the bird ought to be, there, sure enough it was, 

 lying at my feet. I had walked over it several times, but as 

 it happened to have fallen in a very natural position, its 

 protective colouring had provided a perfect example of the 

 difficulty of the problem, "Find the bird." Many a similar 

 story could be related by all sportsmen who have had much 



