2 
gUAT L. 
Until within the last fifteen or twenty years, Quails were abundant during summer in the immediate 
vieinity of Brighton *. Xumbers bred within a few hundred yards of the towm, and their nests were frequently 
mown out w'hen the seeds and elover were eut. Any fine still evening in May and June the w^ell-known 
“ whit-whit ” of the male might be heard on various parts of the Downs, the raee-hill being an especially 
favoured spot. In the spring of 1872 I also recognized the note on the chalky hill-sides, a few miles inland 
up the valley of the Adur, betw^een Shoreham and Deeding. As few, if any, were obtained during the shootino- 
season, it must be supposed that the birds were merely migrants to the south coast; the times of their 
arrival and departure, whence they came and whither they went, were, however, unknown. The cause of 
their gradual falling off in numbers and ultimate disappearance f also remains a mystery, the nature of the 
surrounding country having undergone little or no alteration. 
In tlie east of Sussex a few brace were killed early in September 1856 by my father’s keeper on a stubble 
adjoining the Pevensey marshes; the birds, even at that date, were extremely scarce in the district 
The Quail feeds on a variety of sm,all seeds, and doubtless also on diminutive insects, together with their 
eggs and larvm. The improvements lately carried out with regard to the land may account for the decrease of 
le birds in the neighbourhood of the fens; no changes have, however, taken place in Sussex that could possibly 
have affected the suppl ies of food needed to meet the humble requirements of this retiring species. 
.ST * 'rn’tu T““ '"»«"•“»». Oo witk ttose of .1. E. Kno.x, who i„ th. Ihird 
. . of Om.lholog.cal E.„bto .„ S„.sex,- published ib 1855, remark.-- The Ouail is only an automnal migratory visitor to Suss„ ” 
t I have not heard their note during the last ten years. 
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