sWes, and are picked up dead on the beach. On arriving 
here they are very lean, but in a few days recover their 
wasted flesh and strength, and soon become very fat ; their 
food is insects and grain, also the blades of green wheat 
amongst which they are principally found ; they are easily 
enticed by means of a whistle ( which imitates the note or 
call of the male bird) into nets and snares; they are kept 
by poulterers in small boxes, made so narrow as to prevent 
their being able to turn round; in this state they are fed 
on bread and sugar mixed with hemp-seed, which fattens 
them prodigiously ; we have known several kept in this 
way for eight or nine months ; in the winter season they 
frequently sell from half a guinea to fifteen shillings the 
This species breeds on the ground, it makes scarcely any 
nest, and lays from eight to twelve duskey coloured eggs, 
spotted with brown of various tints ; the young begin to 
run as soon as excluded, frequently with part of the shell 
adhering to them ; they feed at first on ants and their eggs, 
much like the partridge, but the parent birds are less 
careful of their brood. 
It is a very pugnacious bird, and was formerly kept in 
many parts of Europe, as it now is in China, for the 
purpose of fighting, in the same manner as game cocks, 
and was trained much in the same way. The species is 
much less abundant in this country than formerly, but in 
the south of Europe they are found in immense numbers; 
and it is on record, that upwards of one hundred thousand 
have been taken in one day on the west coast of the kingdom 
of Naples, , 
