QUAIL. 
141 
Potter (Appendix, p. 68) added the following as a foot-note to Mr. 
Babington’s ornithological list ; — “ It may be added, on the authority of Charles 
March Phillipps, Esq., that a variety of Partridge, with white-breasted horse- 
shoes, is still met with on Charnwood : and, so far as that gentleman has been 
able to learn, there only. — T. R. P.” Although I mention this, I must confess 
I do not understand what is meant by “white-breasted horse-shoes,” and can 
only conclude that, as usual when Potter touched ornithological subjects, he 
muddled up his information in some extraordinary manner. Mr. T. Woodcock, 
of Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreake, wrote me on 3rd Sept., 1885, that there were three 
white Partridges, in a covey of nine or ten, on the Grarthorpe estate, near Melton 
INIowbray ; and Mr. James T. Hincks told me in November, 1887, that there was 
still an old white one left, which was extremely shy, and had, until then, escaped. 
I saw a curious, light, sandy variety, in the possession of Sir Arthur Hazlerigg, 
shot at Noseley many years ago. 
In Rutland. — As in Leicestershire. — I saw, in the possession of C. Masters, 
a peculiar, light, cold-grey variety, without any admixture of brown, one of two 
which were shot at Burley about 1885. 
QUAIL. Coturnix communis, Bonnaterre. 
A rare summer visitant. — Mr. Babington, writing in 1842 (Appendix 
‘ Potter,’ p. 68), said : — “ Several killed one season between Whitwick and 
Bardon, some years ago, by Mr. Grundy, who kept a wounded bird alive for 
some time.” Harley wrote : — “ Its visits are only irregular and uncertain, and 
appear confined to meadow-lands and fields lying contiguous to our streams. 
On the banks of the Soar, and the meadows abutting thereupon, the Quail is 
annually no stranger. It breeds there in small numbers. Cossington, Barrow, 
Sileby, Thurcaston and some other villages having low, wet, meadows adjoining 
thereunto, yearly have visits made by this pretty little rasorial bird,” — and 
further : — “ A Quail was captured in the Market-place, Leicester, on the evening 
of 15th Nov., 1846. A second example was shot on Mr. Winstanley’s estate at 
Braunstone, on 20th Nov. of the same year.” IMr. J. Garle Browne, of Leamington, 
writes me that, in 1845, he killed five Quails out of a bevy of nine, which he 
flushed and marked down close to Husbands Bosworth, and, on 24th Dec., 1856, 
he flushed one at Edmondthorpe. Mr. H. C. Woodcock, of Rearsby, wrote me, 
in 1888; — “I have a Quail which was killed on the railway, by the telegraph 
wires passing through my farm. One year there was a bevy on a farm in 
this parish in my occupation, and most of them were killed by a friend of mine. 
I am not sure, but believe the date of both was 1865. I have been often told 
that Quails bred on the Queniborough sand-lands, but never met with any.” 
Mr. Davenport informs me that his father shot Quail at Tilton in September, 1867. 
Mr. Macaulay informed me that Mr. R. Symington, of Market Harborough, shot a 
Quail at Great Bowden, in Sept., 1872, which was, unfortunately, not preserved. 
