In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 



177 



Perdiv Coturn'hv. " The Quail." This pretty little bird is not 

 anything like so numerous with us as it used to be some years back. 

 In fact it adds considerably to the excitement of a day's Partridge 

 shooting when a bevy of these little stragglers can be found. I 

 have shot them at New Farm, in the parish of Stratford Tony, near 

 here, and have also seen them at West Harnham, close to Salisbury ; 

 and 1 have no doubt that they are more frequent than is generally 

 supposed, as, owing to their skulking habits, they are very hard to 

 rise, and when risen are so small that some people might not notice 

 them. I have also killed them at Marshfield, just outside this 

 county on the borders of Gloucestershire, and have also met with 

 them at Holt, near Bradford, where my brother killed several when 

 I was out with him. On this occasion it was extraordinary the 

 difficulty we had in rising them. We knew that they were in a 

 certain stubble field, and that not a large one, and therefore tried it 

 very closely ; but we certainly should not have seen anything of 

 them on that day had we not known their whereabouts, and been 

 determined to find them. They are sometimes met with very late 

 in this country, and it would seem to be a question whether some 

 of them may not possibly stay with us now and then through the 

 winter. But more probably, perhaps, they are but hapless indi- 

 viduals, which may have been slightly wounded during the previous 

 season, or some that, having been hatched out later than usual, were 

 not strong enough at the normal time of migration to set forth on 

 their arduous journey. On one occasion, not long ago, in our parish, 

 Mr. F. M. E. Jervoise told me he had sprung a Quail in the middle 

 of the December month, while I have a note by me that another 

 was killed on Christmas Day, at Mere, by Mr. James Jesse, as 

 communicated to me by Mr. E. Baker, of that place. I have heard 

 also of several other instances of this bird having been observed in 

 this neighbourhood as late as December ; on one occasion several 

 being seen at the same time. This bird cannot but be surrounded 

 with unusual interest to all readers when they remember the inspired 

 testimony we have as to the enormous numbers in which they appeared 

 in the peninsula of Sinai in the time of the Israelites, " He rained 

 flesh upon them as thick as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand 



