QUAIL. 



395 



paler ; wing- coverts pale rufous-brown, streaked like the back, but 

 more minutely ; quills dusky, the outer webs more or less mottled with 

 yellowish white ; tail dusky, tipped with white, and consists of twelve 

 short feathers hid by the coverts. 



Ths female differs in having- no black chin or throat, but only a dusky 

 mark from the ears passing downwards ; the breast is also spotted with 

 dusky, and the coverts of the wings crossed with yellowish white bars ; 

 in other respects the sexes are alike. The legs of both are of a light 

 yellowish brown. 



The Quail is found in all parts of the old world, but not in America. 

 It is a bold bird, and is frequently used in China for fighting, as we do 

 our game cocks. In the flight season, when these birds migrate to and 

 from the north, they are found in prodigious quantities in all the islands 

 of the Archipelago, which contains no less than forty-five principal ones. 

 It is said that a hundred thousand have been taken in one day on the 

 west coast of the kingdom. The nest is formed with very little care, and 

 the eggs are deposited on the ground, in a hole scratched for the occa- 

 sion. Dr. Latham remarks that he has known two instances where 

 twenty eggs have been found in the nest of a Quail. This proli- 

 ficacy is the occasion of the immense flocks that are annually noticed 

 on their passage, spring and autumn, in various parts of the south of 

 Europe, especially in the Crimea, and borders of the Black Sea. In 

 the island of Stefano, they arrive in great flights in the month of May, 

 from the coast of Africa. In this country some few are said to re- 

 main the whole year in the southern counties, and in the vicinity of 

 the sea, probably individuals of later brood, who have been unable to 

 accompany the main body in the autumnal migration. 



If full credit is to be given to Baron de Tott, these birds migrate by 

 night ; a circumstance apparently extremely unnatural, because none 

 of those birds, whose natural habits oblige them to feed by day, and 

 roost, or repose by night, can see distinctly after the dusk of the even- 

 ing, and are so foolishly blind, and so extremely fearful of flying, that 

 nothing but alarm can force them to take wing. It is also asserted, 

 that these birds, during the fine weather, are dispersed over the Crimea, 

 but assemble at the approach of autumn, to cross the Black Sea, over 

 to the southern coast, whence they pursue their course into warmer 

 regions : the order of this migration is said to be invariable. Towards 

 the end of August, the Quails, in a body, choose one of those serene 

 days, when the wind, blowing from the north at sun-set, promises them 

 a fine night ; they then repair to the strand, take their departure at six 

 or seven in the evening, and have finished a journey of fifty leagues by 



