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No one (at lead with us) ever keeps quails in a 

 cage except the poulterers, who always fell them as 

 fail as they are fat, and Confequently can give no 

 account of what happens to them during fo long an 

 imprisonment as this obfervation necefTarily implies. 



No fuch remarkable uneafinefs hath ever been at- 

 tended to in any other fuppofed bird of paiTage 

 during its confinement; but, allowing the facl: to be 

 as M. de Buffon ftates, he himfelf fupplies us with 

 the real caufe of this impatience. 



He afTerts, that quails conflantly moult twice * a 

 year, viz. at the clofe both of fummer and winter; 

 whence it follows, that the bird, in autumn and 

 the fpring, muft be in full vigour upon its re- 

 covery from this periodical illnefs: it can therefore as 

 little brook confinement, as the phyfician's patient 

 upon the return of health after illnefs. 



Thus much I have thought it necefTary to fay, in 

 anfwer to M. de Buffon, who tc dum errat, docet," 

 who fcarcely ever argues ill but when he is mitinformed 

 as to facts, and who often, from ftrength of under- 

 handing, disbelieves fuch intelligence as might impofe 

 upon a naturalift of lefs acutenefs and penetration. 



* I have often heard that certain birds moult twice a year, fome 

 of which I haye kept rnyfelf without their changing their fea- 

 thers more than once. 



I fhould fuppofe that this notion arifes from fome birds not 

 moulting regularly in the autumn every year; and when the 

 change takes place in the following fpring, they very commonly 

 die : I can fcarcely think that many of them are equal to two 

 illneffes of fo long a continuance, which are conftamiy to return 

 within twelvemonths. 



I fhould therefore rather account for the extraordinary brifk- 

 nefs of a quail in autumn and the fpring, from its recovery after 

 moulting in the former, and from the known effects of the fpring 

 as to moft animals in the latter. 



N n 2 The 



