' Field ' and other publications, with expressions of 

 surprise on the part of the writer ; but, in my experience, 

 wherever this species breeds, a few always remain 

 through the cold weather ; I have found this to be the 

 case in Ireland, S.W. Lancashire, the Cambridgeshire 

 fens, Northamptonshire, Spain, Sardinia, Sicily, Tunis, 

 and Epirus. In Lancashire, where I have seen more 

 Quails than in any other part of England, I observed 

 that they especially affected oat-stubbles on land that 

 had been reclaimed from its original condition of peat- 

 bog or " moss " by deep drainage, but as the land 

 became dryer and the weeds decreased the Quails 

 gradually disappeared, and, as regards the locality to 

 which I am specially referring, I have not heard of the 

 occurrence of a Quail during the last ten years. So 

 much has been written about the abundance of this bird 

 on the spring-passage throughout the countries bordered 

 by the Mediterranean that it would be quite superfluous 

 to go into details on the subject ; I will only, then, state 

 that in the Ionian Islands the spring flights of Quails 

 are often perfectly marvellous, whilst in some years very 

 few take that route of northward migration. The nest 

 of this bird is a simple scratching of the ground with a 

 few dried bents as lining, and in my experience is 

 generally situated in grass, lucerne, or common clover, 

 very often in Spain on the grassy borders of a vast wheat- 

 field, but seldom actually amongst growing corn of that 

 kind. I have, however, found several nests in patches 

 of barley and rye. I never found more than ten 

 eggs in a nest, but am well aware that larger numbers 

 are frequently to be met with. I consider Quail- 



