THE QUAIL OF THE BIBLE. 
49 
supply the great Hebrew host with a sufficient number to 
last for a month. It was a south-east wind, drifting oyer 
the desert from the Arabian Sea, with probably a bearmg 
from Southern Persia, in which case it would cross the 
Persian Gulf Noav, we know that from these districts, 
including the Arabia Felix of Strabo, Quails, in countless 
numbers, literally darkening the air, might have been 
QUAIL. 
impelled, from those fresh and fertile feeding-grounds in 
Persia and Arabia, onward to the arid stony tracts to the 
east of the Ked Sea. But, leaving the discussion of this 
question to biblical commentators, we will proceed to speak 
of this wide air-wanderer as a British and a sportsman's 
bird. In flocks it seldom visits our island until the end of 
May, but solitary individuals, and sometimes family groups, 
may be occasionally found here all the year round. It is 
known sometimes to breed with us, and appears to be on 
the increase ; thus we learn, by a communication to Notes for 
Naturalists, that the proprietor of a portion of Lochar Moss, 
in Dumfriesshire, has observed that whereas ^ fifteen years 
ago not an individual of this species was to be seen there, 
since that time two or three pairs have arrived yearly, 
and that recently the number of immigrants has increased. 
From 1853 to 1856, during the breeding season, the piping 
of the Quail was regularly heard, and several individuals 
D 
