MORE ABOUT GAME-BIRDS. 123 



retiring nature which he shares with the corncrake, 

 a bird frequenting the same pastures, his cry could 

 be heard much more often than he could be seen, 

 unless he was systematically searched for. 



Morning and evening, in past years, I have in the 

 same fields listened to the cry of both the corncrake 

 and the quail — the " Crake, crake, crake ! Crake, 

 crake, crake!" of the one, and the plaintive piping 

 "Bit by bit, bit by bit! Weet, weet, weet, wet! 

 Whit my weet, whit whit wheet ! " of the other. 

 These various plaintive "weets" are the nearest 

 illustration I can give my readers of the cry of 

 the quail. 



The nest of the common quail is only a slight 

 depression in the ground, scratched out by the birds 

 for nesting purposes, if a convenient one does not 

 already exist which they can appropriate and line 

 with a few dry blades of the special grass so often 

 found in loose soils. The eggs are usually from 

 sixteen to eighteen in number, but sometimes as 

 many as twenty will be found, and they vary in 

 their ground colour from reddish yellow to greenish 

 yellow, being marked all over with brown blotches 

 and spots. 



