QUAIL. 89 



As an article of food, Quails are, and always have been, much esteemed ; hut Mr. Tarrell 

 asserts that, from his own experience, he considers them a very heating food. Be this 

 as it may, most people would he disposed to quarrel with the quantity rather than the 

 quality of the meat. 



The localities chosen by the Quail in these countries are the same as those frequented 

 by the Gray Partridge ; namely, meadows, corn, turnip, pea, and bean fields. It is seldom 

 found on high ground, or in wet marshy land. The Quail is a ground bird, and it 

 obtains its food in the same situations and way as the Partridge does. The feeding times 

 of the Quail are early in the morning, and again late in the evening till dusk. In the 

 day-time it skulks and hides in fields affording suitable cover, and if the sun be shining 

 warmly, it will bask and sun itself on the sides of hedges, dusting and preening its feathers 

 like the Partridge. Except during their migrations, they would seem not to be of very 

 sociable habits, for the pugnacious feelings of the males are instantly called up whenever 

 two of that sex happen to meet. The Quail is very swift of foot, and also flies with great 

 ease and quickness, much after the manner of the Partridge; its flight is seldom to any 

 distance, and when it drops it has the habit of running its head into a tuft of grass, or 

 behind any shelter, imagining that it is then safe; and when in this position it may be 

 readily captured by the hand. 



In "The Naturalist," for December, 1852, are some curious observations by J. Mc' Intosh, 

 Esq., on the hour at which various birds wake in the morning, from May to July. He 

 there states that the Common Quail, "opens its eyes to light and life," from half-past 

 two to three. 



The Quail is very generally considered to be polygamous in its habits, yet this would 

 appear to be very doubtful ; for in these countries they certainly seem to pair, and though 

 the male bird does not assist in incubation, yet he joins the female when the young are 

 hatched, and aids her in bringing them up. Mr. Thompson has perhaps collected more 

 evidence in favour of its being monogamous than any one else, and we shall therefore 

 make a few extracts from his interesting and valuable work, bearing upon this point. 

 "The Quail is generally characterized as a polygamous bird, which I cannot consider correct, 

 at least in reference to Ireland. The universal impression, as far as I have questioned 

 persons well acquainted with the bird, is, that it regularly pairs. Indeed in the north 

 it is generally met with in pairs, not only in summer but in winter. Mr. Poole, considering 

 the pairing as a matter of course, from these birds having so occurred to him in the 

 county of "Wexford, remarks, under date April 11th: — "A Quail, which has through the 

 winter frequented a meadow in my daily walk, has, I observe, to-day, procured for itself 

 a mate, but whether from the spring migration, or from some neighbouring locality, as is 

 more probable, must remain a mystery, except to the respective parties." "But the nearest 

 approximation to proof is in the following cases. The observant gamekeeper at Grlengariff, 



