THE QUAIL. 103 



coloured than the male. This feature also occurs in the case of 

 the painted snipe, and it is a fact that tlie bustard-quails form 

 a connecting link between the pheasants and the rails, just as 

 the painted snijic is intermediate between the rails and the true 

 snipe. The quails in India all belong to the bustard-quail type. 

 The local species inhabits the long sedgegrass in and round marshy 

 districts, and not infrequently offers a shot when one is out after snipe. 



Quail shooting as a sport reaches its height in North Africa, where 

 the sportsmen annually await the vernal and autumnal migrations with 

 impatience. During these seasons enormous bags are made. In Great 

 Eritain very Httle is done in this line, though, I believe, an attempt is 

 being made to encourage the quail to breed in districts where other 

 game will not tln-ive. 



As a matter of fact very good sport can be had from quail, though 

 shooting them is not nearly so difficult as is the case with most other 

 birds. 



In China, where quails are plentiful, one can soon get very keen; 

 though where they mix with pheasants and other game birds, their 

 scent is so attractive to hounds, and they offer such tempting marks as 

 they rise and skim over the tops of the bushes, that they are apt to 

 spoil more serious sport. 



Quails are prevalent all over North China, where there is flat open 

 country. They do not frequent hilly country except where the hills are 

 low and rolling. In Shansi they are verj' numerous in the wide river- 

 valleys. On the Tai-yuan Fu plain I have often had very good sport, 

 though I have never made big bags. There they are very useful in 

 filling up gaps in mixed bags. As one walks through the sage brush, 

 tall grass and bean patches looking for hare and partridges, one is 

 frequently startled by a whirr of tiny wings as a quail rises from one's 

 very feet. At the report of the ensuing shot a second bird almost 

 invariably gets up, offering another good chance. 



In the \^•inter of 1911, on our ride into Sliensi, we found them very 

 numerous along the road side, a day's journey south west of Tai-yuan 

 Fu. Those of my companions who had shotguns had excellent sport, as 

 my pointer worked backward and forward in the long sedge-grass, 

 pvitting up bird after bird. Some dozen birds were secured thus in less 

 than half an hour, all the time that could be spared. 



While camping on the banks of the Fen Ho in the same district, 

 I invariably liad good sport with quails, while visiting my traps, usually 

 bringiug home t-no or three brace. Here they would get up from bare 

 fields, or where the merest whisp of cover lay. 



