88 QUAIL. 



as himself for the arrival of the Quails." Tens of thousands are often taken in a single 

 day, and yet each year the ranks of this invading yet welcome army are constantly renewed, 

 to be again the unresisting victims of an indiscriminate slaughter. In the autumn they 

 revisit the northern shores of the Mediterranean, on their way to the more southern winter 

 quarters, and many are again destined to active persecution by their unsatisfied admirers. 



This species of Quail is not only a summer visitant to England, Scotland, and Ireland, 

 but so many are found to remain all the year, particularly in Ireland, that these can 

 hardly be said to be merely accidental exceptions. 



On this point we may refer our readers to a paper by the Eev. W. Waldo Cooper, in "The 

 Naturalist," for December 1853, in which he enumerates a number of instances in which 

 the Quail was met with in the winter months; and, in the May number for the same 

 year, the Rev. Frederic Fane says, "I have thought it singular, that, with one exception, 

 the only occasions on which I have had opportunities of killing Quails, birds supposed 

 to leave England for the winter months, have been in the months of December and Jan- 

 uary, in Lincolnshire, Hampshire, and Dorsetshire." Mr. Thompson has also collected a 

 great number of instances in which this bird has occurred in Ireland in the winter months, 

 satisfactorily proving to our mind, that a large number, at any rate, do not migrate, 

 and in some districts very few, if any. He says that the climate of Ireland is so mild, 

 that the Quails have no difficulty in procuring food during the winter, in most years. 

 May not the readiness with which they obtain sustenance materially influence their movements 

 as to migration? He concludes with the following remarks: "Although more Quails appear 

 to have wintered in Ireland, in the comparatively mild seasons of late years, than formerly, 

 I have the testimony of a veteran sportsman to the effect, that, from his having met 

 with them in the counties of Down and Antrim, every winter during the last sixty-five 

 years, he had always looked upon them as indigenous, and not as migratory birds. Others 

 bear witness to the same effect for half that period, and have considered them (in the 

 Island Magee, etc.) to be as common in winter as in summer." 



However, certain it is that the great bulk arrive in these countries early in May, the 

 males coming before the females, and leave in September or early in October. In England 

 and Scotland they cannot be said to be anywhere numerous, while in Ireland they are 

 stated to be very common ; and we certainly remember when living in Dublin some eighteen 

 or nineteen years ago, very often meeting with these birds in our excursions into the 

 country, within a few miles of that city. Out of these islands it is said to be found 

 very generally distributed over Europe, Asia, and Africa. In all these countries they are 

 more or less migratory, and the want of food, rather than change of climate, would seem 

 to be the inciting cause of this movement. Their migration is made during moonlight 

 nights, resting, if possible, during the day. Of course when passing over the sea, their 

 flight must be continued both day and night. 



