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"Plentiful in North Lincolnshire in the autumn after the hot dry summer of 1870, the year 

 of the great Franco-Prussian war — in one instance three brace having been killed in one day to 

 a single gun, and eight brace falling during the same season to another sportsman on a farm 

 near Caistor, on which land two or three large bevies occurred, doubtless bred there, as several 

 eggs had been taken in the same locality during the summer." Mr. Hancock states that in 

 Northumberland and Durham it is " a spring-and-autumn migrant, not by any means common, 

 and somewhat local, but occasionally breeding in the district. Nests have occurred at Howick. 

 C'ullercoats, Fulwell, Callerton, Fell, Wallsend, and Westoe." According to Mr. Eobert Gray 

 (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 245) it is " a well-known visitor to the western counties of Scotland. It 

 breeds with us in limited numbers ; and in the autumn months it is a familiar bird in Ayrshire, 

 extending over the whole of the county. In many places it is called weet-my-feet on account of 

 its call-note resembling these words, and which may often be heard on dewy evenings in fields of 

 grass or stubble where grass has been sown. I have often listened to its soft chatterings on still 

 summer nights in situations like these near Girvan, where the Quail is by no means uncommon. 

 In the adjoining county of Wigton Quails appear to have been abundant about the end of last 

 century. 



" This bird appears to be very rare in the Long Island. There is a specimen, which I have 

 seen, in the collection of Sir James Matheson, Bart., at Stornoway ; it was shot at Lewis, where, 

 I have since learned, one pair, at least, bred in 1868. When in the island of North Uist in the 

 beginning of August 1870, Mr. John Macdonald, Newton, showed me a nest of twelve eggs 

 which had been taken near his residence about ten days previously. These are now in the 

 collection of Captain Orde. On the east of Scotland it is by no means so common as on the 

 west ; still it is met with in nearly all the counties, ranging from Berwick to Orkney. In the 

 midland counties it is sparingly distributed, but is rare in the north. The nest of the species is 

 not often found. I have procured eggs from Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Wigtonshire, and Kirk- 

 cudbrightshire. The nest has also been found in Mid Lothian. Mr. J. H. Dunn, of Stromness, 

 has informed me that on the 4th October 1851 he got eleven eggs of the Quail, that were found 

 by a woman when cutting grain near his house." Messrs. Baikie and Heddle state (Nat. Hist. 

 Ork. p. 57) that one was shot in Sanday, Orkneys, by Mr. Strang in May 1833 ; and Dr. Saxby 

 writes (B. of Shetl. p. 155) as follows: — "At Burrafirth, in Unst, on the 25th September 1868, 

 a woman brought me eight eggs which she had just found while reaping a small field of oats. 

 She stated that a few weeks previously she had observed a bird resembling a small Land-Kail 

 in the same field, but, as it suddenly disappeared, it was supposed to have been killed by a cat. 

 There were ten eggs originally; but two were accidentally broken on the way over the hills. 

 This is the only recorded instance of the occurrence of the Quail in Shetland." I may here 

 remark that, in his Notes on the Ornithology of Sutherland, Mr. Harvie-Brown writes as follows : — 

 " Amongst other records of its nesting in Caithness and Sutherland I may instance the following. 

 In the former county Mr. K. J. Shearer records that the Quail bred in 1860 near Ulbster, and 

 that ' twelve eggs were laid and hatched. I shot two of the young and the old cock in autumn.' 

 In Sutherland the Quail has nested in the east of the county several times ; and Mr. T. Mackenzie, 

 of Dornoch Castle, writes to me that he himself 'found the nest, but, unfortunately, after the 

 young had been hatched. The fragments of egg-shells enabled me to identify them as Quail's 



