124 FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



This bird is as courageous a fighter as a game- 

 cock or a robin ; but surely it is poor pastime to 

 train the brave little fellow for fighting matches. 

 Yet in some countries he is regularly carried about 

 for such a detestable purpose, and even in England 

 his fighting capabilities have been unjustly turned 

 to advantage. 



I once very nearly established a pair of quails in 

 my own house, but I did not accomplish this inten- 

 tion for a certain excellent reason. When I have 

 pets they are generally with me in my own private 

 room. Quails are the most active and restless little 

 feathered creatures living, or at least the most so 

 among the game-birds, and the last time I visited 

 this particular pair they were piping incessantly and 

 throwing the sand and gravel about most energeti- 

 cally, making such a rattle against the back of their 

 long cage that the noise was like a lot of boys busily 

 employed with pea-shooters. 



■ I can put up with almost anything from wild 

 creatures. I can even endure having a bird of prey 

 stand on my shoulder, gently running one end of 

 my moustache through his beak without nipping 

 one hair from it. This does not affect my nerves; 



