^84 



VERTEBRATES. 



tries of which it is a native, it keeps ordinarily among rocks, while 

 it has the instinct to descend into the plains to make its nest, in 

 order that the young, when they are hatched, may find a sufficiency 

 of subsistence. Red-legged partridges are most determined run- 

 ners, and few birds are so able to puzzle a well-bred and a well- 

 broken pointer. 



Quails are found nearly in every country of Europe, also 

 in Asia, and are very common in China. The males are much 



given to fighting, and were anciently exhibited in regular combat* 

 both by the Greeks and Romans. The practice of quail-fighting 

 is still cherished in China, Sumatra, and some districts of Italy. 

 •Quails are capable of receiving a considerable quantity of fat : 

 *^heir meat is delicate, pleasant to the taste, and therefore they are 

 killed in great numbers for the table. They hatch four times a 

 year, from fifteen to twenty in number. Sometimes they under- 

 take extensive migrations in immense flocks, passing in autumn 

 from the colder to the warmer regions. With wind and weather 

 in their favor, they have been known to perform a flight of fifty 

 leagues across the Black Sea in one night. An hundred thousand 



