﻿PARTRIDGE. 7 3i 



with thefe birds, and fome of them obtain a name from this cir- 

 cumftance *. On the weft coaft of the kingdom of Naples, 

 within the fpace of four or five miles, an hundred thoufand 

 have been taken in a day, which have been fold for eight livres 

 per hundred, to dealers who carry them for fale to Rome. Great 

 quantities alfo fometimes alight in fpring on the coafts of Pro- 

 vence, efpecially on the diocefe of the bijhop of Frejus, which is 

 near the fea, and appear, at their firft landing, fo much fatigued 

 that they are often taken by the hand f. Thefe circumftances 

 then leave not a doubt of their being the fame kind of birds 

 which the divine hand of Providence thought right to direct in 

 fuch quantities as to cover the camp o? the murmuring IJraelites\, 



In the autumn, great quantities are frequently imported into 

 England from France, for the table; which we have frequently 

 feen on their pafTage to London by the ftage-coaches, about an 

 hundred in a large fquare box, divided into five or fix partitions 

 one above another, juft high enough to admit of the Quails 

 Handing upright ; thefe boxes have wires on the fore part, 

 and each partition furnifhed with a little trough for food ; and 

 I have been told they may be conveyed thus to great diftances 

 without difficulty §. 



With us they may be faid not to be plenty at any time. 



* This is the cafe in an ifland in the harbour of St. Jago, which is called 

 ^uail IJle. — Forji. Voy. p. 39. 



f Hift. des oif. 



% Exod. xvi. 13. 



§ How they agree fo well I do not know. The ancients found them fuch 

 quarrelfome birds, that when the children fell out they applied a proverb, " as 

 " quarrel/ome as Quails in a cage." 



They 



