872 Birds. 



intense frost, which, curious to say, prevailed while the barley where they lay was 

 being carried. — Henri/ T. Frere ; Corpus Christi College, January 3, 1845. 



Occurrence in Oxfordshire of the Andalusian Quail, a bird new to Britain. The 

 addition of a species to our list of British birds, is a subject of so great interest, that, 

 although anticipating a much more acceptable communication on the subject than 

 any I can pen, still I cannot allow the fact to be any longer unrecorded in ' The 

 Zoologist.' The species in question is beautifully figured in Mr. Gould's * Birds of 

 Europe' (vol. iv. fol. 264), under the name of the Andalusian Turnix (Hemipodius 

 trachydromus, Temm.) Mr. Gould observes that the species of the genus Hemipodius 

 differ from the true quails (Coturnix), in the total absence of the hind toe, and in 

 the long and slender form of their bills : they are the most diminutive birds of the 

 gallinaceous tribe being not more than half the size of the common quail. Mr. 

 Temminck states that they are polygamous, and that they give a preference to sterile 

 lands, sandy plains, and the confines of deserts, over which they run with surprising 

 quickness ; he also states that the young and old do not associate in companies, or in 

 bevies, as is the case with the quail. Their food is said to consist principally of 

 insects, small seeds, &c. The present species is tolerably abundant at Gibraltar, and 

 that part of Spain which borders the Mediterranean, being more scarce in the central 

 portions, and in the northern and all similar latitudes altogether absent. The top of 

 the head is dark brown, streaked longitudinally with reddish-yellow; throat white; the 

 feathers on the sides of the chest reddish-chesnut, those of the flanks yellowish-white, 

 with a crescent-shaped mark of rich brown occupying the centre of each ; lower part 

 of the belly pure white ; the upper surface is dark brown, with numerous zigzag lines 

 of reddish ash, and transversely ranged with lines of brown and chesnut, each feather 

 being finely margined with white ; coverts of the wing yellow, with a spot of reddish 

 chesnut on the inner web ; primaries ashy brown, the outer web bordered with white 

 bill and legs greyish flesh-colour. For a notice of the occurrence of this bird in 

 England, we are indebted to Mr. Goatley, of Chipping-Norton, who sent a letter on 

 the subject to the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' of which I subjoin a 

 copy. " I have recently received a bird, which appears to me to be new to this coun- 

 try ; it is a quail, having no back toe, and is not mentioned, I believe, in any work on 

 British Ornithology to which I have access ; but in Dr. Latham's 'General History' 

 it is described as the Perdrix Gibraltarica, with which my specimen appears to agree. 

 The bird was shot by the gamekeeper on the Cornwall estate in this county, about 

 three miles from hence, and has been kindly presented to me. It was found in a 

 field of barley, of which kind of grain, by the bye, hundreds of acres are still standing, 

 with no prospect of being harvested in a proper state. Before I proceeded to preserve 

 the bird, I took the measure of its various parts, the colour of its eyes, bill, and feet, 

 its weight, &c. ; after which I found its description in the work above alluded to. It 

 was shot on the 29th of October last, since which time another has been killed near 

 the same spot, by the same person, but its head was shot off, and otherwise so muti- 

 lated as to be unfit for preservation ; this might probably complete the pair, mine 

 being a male bird. It had in its gizzard two or three husks of barley, several small 

 seeds, similar to charlock, some particles of gravel, and was very fat. It was consi- 

 derably injured by the shot, but I have set it up in the best manner I could, and con- 

 sider it a valuable addition to my small collection of British birds. Should this 

 prove to be the only known instance of the capture of the bird in Britain, I shall feel 



