XOeJ 



11 



taken possession, with the greatest fury. Formerly Quails used to be kept for fighting : this is 

 still done amongst some of the eastern nations ; and they are said to fight until one succumbs 

 and is killed by his adversary. 



The Quail breeds very late, usually late in June or early in July, the nest being a mere 

 depression scratched in the soil, usually in a wheat- or grain-field, or else in the grass, and lined 

 with a few grass bents or stems of plants, in which from eight to a dozen or fourteen eggs are 

 deposited. The female incubates very closely, not leaving her eggs until very closely approached, 

 and then running away, not flying off. Incubation lasts from eighteen to twenty days ; and the 

 young birds are able to run almost directly after they are hatched. They are very carefully 

 tended by the mother, and fed with insects and insect-larvae, and grow very quickly, being able 

 to flutter along when only a fortnight old, and in six weeks time are full-grown and able to fly, 

 and then scatter and take care of themselves. It appears that only one brood is raised in the 

 season ; but should the first eggs be destroyed she will lay another lot, though less in number 

 than the first. 



The eggs of the Quail are somewhat large for the size of the bird, measuring, on an average, 

 about l^o by f^ inch ; they vary somewhat in shape, and are richly coloured with deep olivaceous 

 brown or blackish brown on a brownish yellow ground, some being marked all over with small 

 spots, and others richly and largely blotched, the variation in the markings being very great. 



There appears to be little doubt that the present species is the bird that supplied the 

 famishing Israelites with food in the wilderness. It has, however, been asserted by various 

 authors that it was a flying fish, a locust, and a Sand-Grouse. But every thing tends to prove that 

 it must have been a Quail ; for it was most undoubtedly a bird, and the present species is almost 

 the only one that migrates in such great numbers as to answer to the description in Holy Writ. 

 In such quantities does it migrate, that, according to Yarrell, as many as 160,000 are recorded 

 to have been netted in one season on Goat Island, a small island at the entrance of the Bay of 

 Naples ; and Temminck states that near Nettuno, in the kingdom of Naples, a hundred thousand 

 have been taken in a day. 



The specimens figured are those above described, and are in my own collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — - 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 



a, $ . Leadenhall Market, September (H. E. D.) . b, c, pulli. France (Fairmaire). d, 6 , e, $ . Casa Vieja, 

 Andalucia, May 10th, 1874 (Col. Irby). f, d juv., g, ?. Stilo, Albania, November 2nd, 1871 (Hanbury 

 Barclay), h, i, k. Port Elizabeth, S. Africa (Cutler). I, d. Yarkand, January 1874 (Capt. Biddulph). 

 m. Yeddo, Japan (C. M'Veari). 



E Mus. Lord Tweeddale. 



a, d , b, 2 • Croydon, Surrey, May 19th, 1869 (Davy) . c, d . Usern, Switzerland (Nager) . d, d , e, $ „ 

 Valencia, Spain, October (H. Saunders), f, g, 6 ■ N.E. India, h, i, d, k, $. N.W. India. I, m, d, 

 n $. Candeish, India, o. Umballah, November 1866 (Beavan). p, d. East Bardwan, India, February 

 1864 (Beavan). q,r,d. Chefoo, China, May 1873 (R. Sivinhoe). s, d . Fengwanshan, China, April 

 1875. t, 6 ■ S. Yezo, Japan, August (Whitely). 



