260 AMERICAN GAME. 
riably the cleanest of weeds; and aright good sports- 
man, and good friend.of mine, working on the same base 
per contra, says that, in driving his shooting-cart and 
dogs through a country, he has never found it worth his 
while to stop and beat a district full of weedy and dirty 
farms, as such never contain Quail. 
If this may lead our farmers to consider that every live 
Quail does far more good on the farm, than the shilling 
earned by -his capture in the omnivorous trap; and 
therefore to prohibit their sons and farm-boys from exter- 
Ininating them at their utmost need, when food is scarce, 
and shelter hard to find, my words will not have been 
altogether wasted, nor my object unattained. 
Were I a farmer, I would hang it over my kitchen 
fire-place, inscribed in goodly capitals—“Spare the 
Quail! If you would have clean fields and goodly crops, 
spare the Quail! So shall you spare your labor.” 
And now, in a few words, we will on to their nomen- 
clature, their distinctive marks, their regions of inhabit- 
ation, seasons, haunts and habits; and last, not least, 
how, when, and where lawfully, honorably, sportsmanly, 
and gnostically, you may and shall kill them. 
I will not, however, here pause long to discuss the 
point, whether they ought to be termed Quail or Par- 
tridge. Scientifically and practically they are neither, 
but a connecting link between the two subgenera. True 
Partridge, nor true Quail, very perdix, nor very coturnia, 
exists at all anywhere in America. Our bird, an inter- 
