STUBBLE QUAIL 
5 
or two out of Geelong has had its coveys. In the 
summer of 1911--12 they were extraordinarily 
plentiful, and thousands of eggs and tiny chicks 
must have been destroyed at the December harvest. 
For like the Lapwing in Britain, the Quail learns 
nothing by experience, and disdaining the cover of 
grass paddocks, chooses a growing crop to deposit, 
in a rough grass-lined hollow, its clutch of seven to 
ten yellowish eggs, smudged with olive-green. In 
our district most eggs are laid in November ; but 
those people who favour a late opening for the shoot- 
ing-season have no difficulty in providing instances 
of fresh eggs found in February, March, and even 
April. 
Speaking of general average seasons, the main body 
of Quail have left us before mid-autumn. Do they 
migrate ? Not, indeed, as does the Snipe, which 
crosses the world's width twice a year. Yet, within 
the limits of Australia, the Quail have more or less 
regular movements which are governed by the quantity 
of cover and food available ; so that in an exceptionally 
good year when grasses and seeds are plentiful, they 
stay right through the winter in the vicinity of last 
year's nesting-place. A lover of the open country, 
this Quail is never met with in the bush, except 
where crops have been sown in a clearing or there is 
a relatively large patch of grass-land. 
The female is distinguishable from the male in 
that her throat is white where his is rufous, and in 
not having so much black on the chest. 
