PARTRIDGE. 315 



Gibraltar, and the neighbouring low lands, Quails are ranch more 

 plentiful than Partridges, but no instances of their migration have 

 been noticed ; they are certainly more abundant in autumn, but are 

 by no means scarce throughout the winter. 



This bird is comparatively rare in England, not being found 

 plentiful in any season ; indeed they breed with us, and probably the 

 greater part migrate south in autumn, or at least shift their quarters 

 southward, being no uncommon thing to find them both on the 

 Coasts of Essex, and in Hampshire, in October. I have also known 

 them, more than once, to have been killed in Kent in the month of 

 January.* The general manners as to incubation, &c. are not unlike 

 those of the Partridge ; the female laying her eggs on the bare 

 ground, sometimes as far as twenty,-]- but we believe from eight to 

 twelve is the more general number ; these are of a whitish colour, 

 marked with irregular rusty brown spots all over; length of the egg 

 one inch and a quarter; the young follow the mother as soon as 

 hatched, and they have but one brood in the year. These birds are 

 easily drawn within reach of a net, by a Quail-call, or call pipe, 

 imitating their voice, which is not unlike the words Whit whitwhit; 

 by this means numbers are procured in Flanders, France, and 

 elsewhere, and sent to London by the stage coaches, in May and 

 August, in boxes, each containing several dozens, divided into five 

 or six partitions, one above another, each just high enough to admit 

 of their standing upright ; these boxes have wires in front, each 

 partition having a trough for food, and it is said, that they may be 

 conveyed to a great distance without difficulty. J Mr. Tunstall was 



* Three or four brace were found one morning about Christmas, in a field of turnips, 

 at Eastbourne, in Sussex. — Lin. Trans, iv, p. 19. 



f Two instances of this occurred near Salisbury, in the year 1787. 



J How they agree so well on their journey I do not well know ; the ancients found them 

 to be such quarrelsome companions, that when children fell out they applied a proverb,— 

 " As quarrelsome as Quails in a cage." But I have been lately told, that when they are 

 brought over in such numbers together, they do not disagree ; their falling out only hap- 

 pens when in very small numbers. 



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