306 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



found the nest in a field close to the Moor when cutting the grass, and it 

 contained nine eggs. They were slightly incubated, as he unfortunately 

 broke one to see. — H. St. B. Goldsmith (King's Square, Bridge water). 



Quail in Worcestershire. — Whilst driving near the small village of 

 Churchill, on the 29th June last, I heard a Quail calling lustily in a field 

 of oats near the roadside. The remarkable weather during the period of 

 migration this year seems to have been favourable to these birds, for they 

 have been reported from many localities, and in some of them are said to 

 be numerous. — J. Steele Elliott (Dudley). 



The Quail in South-West Scotland.— There is reason to believe that 

 at the end of last and beginning of this century Quails were tolerably 

 numerous in the south-west of Scotland. From then till the fifties they 

 visited us in gradually lessening numbers, and finally disappeared as regular 

 summer visitors. Sir Wm. Jardine (* British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 106, 1844) 

 says that " Thirty years since (say 1813) they were tolerably common, and 

 regular in their return, and even in the south of Scotland a few broods were 

 occasionally found." Again, in the • New Statistical Account of Dumfries- 

 shire,' the same naturalist states that Quails are " occasionally met with in 

 the parish of Applegarth, at the the time of migration, September and 

 October. In 1819 they bred there and produced large bevies." I find in 

 an old natural-history periodical, which came out at intervals in 1857-58 

 and then failed, a couple of interesting letters referring to Quails above the 

 signature of " W. S. T." (the initials, I believe, of a Mr. Thorburn, who 

 then resided near Maxwelltown). The following extracts are from the letters 

 referred to : — " I have lately been informed by a gentleman who is the 

 proprietor of a portion of Lochar Moss, that fifteen years ago (say 1842) not 

 an individual of this species was to be seen in the Moss. Since that time 

 two or three pairs arrived yearly, until recently he has observed that the 

 number of immigrants have increased. From 1853 to J 856 the piping of 

 the Quail was regularly heard, and several individuals were seen, and in the 

 summer of 1854, in cutting a field of grass, a mower came upon a nest 

 containing about a dozen eggs, with the bird crouching close to the ground." 

 In a subsequent issue of the periodical referred to, " W, S. T." writes, inter 

 alia: — "I lately sent you an account of Quails having been discovered in 

 Dumfriesshire in 1854. I have again the pleasure of informing your readers 

 that this year (1857) another brood has been seen." In Galloway, Quails 

 were formerly much better known than to eastwards of the Nith. Indeed, 

 it may be said that the Wigtownshire folks were quite familiar with these 

 biids, for Messrs. Gray and Anderson, in their ■ Birds of Ayr and Wigtown,' 

 observe that it is known to the country people by the name of " Wet-my 

 leet," these words being supposed to be expressed in the sounds emitted by 

 the birds on summer nights* In the ' Old Statistical Account' (parish of 



