T E T 
T E T 
T E T 
her nest though strangers attempt to drag 
r away. As soon as the young ones are 
tched, they are seen running with extreme 
ility after'tlie mother, though sometimes 
by are not entirely disengaged from the 
ell. The hen leads them forwards for the 
st time into the woods, to show them ants’ 
gs and the wild mountain-berries, which, 
file young, are their only food. As they 
ow older their appetites grow stronger, and 
ey then feed upon the tops of heath and 
ie" cones of the pine-tree. In this manner 
ley soon come to perfection ; they are hardy 
rds, their food lies every where before 
tern, and it would seem that they should in- 
case in great abundance. Rut this is not 
e case ; their numbers are thinned by rapa- 
ous birds and beasts of every kind, and still 
ore by their own salacious contests. As 
ion as the hatching is over, which the female 
;rforms in the manner of a hen, the whole 
-ood follows the mother for about a month 
• two ; at the end of which the young males 
itirely forsake her, and keep in great harmo- 
f together till the beginning of spring. At 
is season they begin to consider each other 
i rivals. They fight like game-cocks ; and 
that time are so inattentive to their own 
fety, that it often happens that two or three 
' them are killed at a shot. 
An old black cock is in length twenty-two 
ches, and weighs near four pounds. The 
11 is dusky ; and the plumage of the whole 
xly black, glossed over the neck and rump 
ith a shining blue. The coverts of the 
ings are of a dusky brown ; the inner co- 
urts white ; the thighs and legs are covered 
ith dark-brown feathers ; the toes resemble 
lose of the former species. The female 
eighs only two pounds, and its length is one 
not six inches. The head and neck are 
marked with alternate bars of dull red and 
ack ; the breast with dusky black and white ; 
it the last predominates. The back, co- 
:rts of the wings, and tail, are of the same 
fours as the neck, but the red is deeper, 
he tail is slightly forked. 'The feathers un- 
:r the tail are white, marked with a few bars 
black and orange. This bird hatches its 
xing late in the summer. It lays from six 
eight eggs, of a dull yellowish-white co- 
Ur, marked with numbers of very small fer- 
iginous specks ; and towards the smaller 
id with some blotches of the same hue. See 
late Nat. Hist. fig. 400. 
3. The scoticus, red game, or moor-fowl, 
peculiar to the British islands. The male 
eighs abont nineteen ounces; and is in 
ngth 15| inches. The plumage on the head 
id neck is of a light tawny red ; each fea- 
er is marked with several transverse bars of 
ack. The back and scapular feathers are 
a deeper red ; and on the middle of each 
ather is a large black spot; the breast and 
•lly are of a dull purplish brown, crossed 
th numerous narrow dusky lines ; the legs 
d feet are clothed to the very claws with 
ick soft white feathers. The claws are 
litish, very broad and strong. The female 
Sighs only fifteen ounces. The colours hi 
jheral are duller than those of the male, 
fiese birds pair in tiie spring, and lay from 
l to ten eggs. The young brood follow the 
in the whole summer ; in the winter they 
in in flocks of forty or fifty, and become re- 
arkably shy and wild; they always keep on 
the tops of the hills, are scarcely ever found 
on the sides, and never descend into the val- 
leys. Their food is the mountain-berries and 
tops of the heath. 
4. The lagopus, white game, or ptarmigan, 
is fifteen inches in length, and weighs nine- 
teen ounces. Its plumage is of a pale brown 
or ash-colour, elegantly crossed or mottled 
with small dusky spots and minute bars ; the 
head and neck with broad bars of black, rust- 
colour, and white:, the belly and wings are 
white, but the shafts of the greater quill-fea- 
thers black. In the male, the grey colour 
predominates, except on the head and neck, 
where there is a great mixture of red, with 
bars of white. The females and young birds 
have a great deal of rust-colour in them. 
The tail consists of sixteen feathers; the two 
middle of which are ash-coloured, mottled 
with black, and tipped with white ; the two 
next black, slightly marked with white at 
their ends, the rest wholly black : the feathers 
incumbent on the tail are white, and almost 
• entirely cover it. 
Ptarmigans are found in these kingdoms 
only on the summit of the highest hills of the 
Highlands of Scotland, of the Hebrides and 
Orkneys ; and a few still inhabit the lofty 
hills near Keswick in Cumberland, as well as 
the mountains of Wales. They live amidst 
the rocks, perching on the grey stones, the 
general colour of the strata in those exalted 
situations. They are very silly birds; so 
tame as to bear driving like poultry ; and, if 
provoked to rise, take very short flights, mak- 
ing a great circuit like pigeons. Like the 
gfouse, they keep in small packs ; but never, 
like those birds, take shelter in the heath, but 
beneath loose stones. To the taste they 
scarcely differ from a grouse. 
II. Perdix, comprehends both the par- 
tridge and quail. 
In England the partridge is a favour- 
ite delicacy at the tables of the rich ; and 
the desire of keeping it to themselves has in- 
duced them to make laws for its preservation, 
no way harmonising with the general spirit of 
English legislation. 
The partridge seems to be a bird well 
known over all the old continent. Their 
manners resemble those of poultry in gene- 
ral ; but their cunning and instinct seem su- 
perior to those of the larger kinds. Perhaps, 
as they live in the very neighbourhood of 
their enemies, they have more frequent oc- 
casion to put their little arts in practice, and 
learn by habit the means of evasion or safety. 
Whenever therefore a dog or other formida- 
ble animal approaches their nest, the female 
uses every means to draw him away. She 
keeps just before him, pretends to be incapa- 
ble of flying, just hops up, and then falls down 
before him, but never goes off so far as to dis- 
courage her pursuer. At length, when she 
has drawn him entirely away from her secret 
treasure, she at once takes wing, and fairly 
leaves him to gaze after her in despair. After 
the danger is over, and the dog withdrawn, 
she then calls her young, who assemble at 
once at her cry, and follow where she leads 
them. There are generally from ten to fif- 
teen in a covey ; and, if unmolested, they 
live from fifteen to seventeen years. 
2. The coturnix, or common quail, is not 
above half the size of the partridge. The 
feathers of the Lead are black, edged with j 
789 
rusty brown ; the breast is of a pale yellow- 
ish red, spotted with black; the feathers on 
the back are marked with lines of pale yel- 
low, and the legs are of a pale hue. Except 
in the colours thus described, and the size, it 
every way resembles a partridge in shape, 
and, except that it is a bird of passage, it is 
like all others of the poultry kind in its habits 
and nature. 
The quail seems to spread entirely through- 
out the old world, but does not inhabit the 
new. it is observed to shift its quarters ac- 
cording to the season, coming northward in 
spring, and departing south in autumn, and 
in vast flocks, like other migrating birds. 
Twice in a year it comes in such vast quanti- 
ties in Capri, that the bishop of the Eland 
draws the cniel part of his revenue from 
them ; hence he is called the quail-bishop. 
But this does not stand alone; almost all the 
islands in the Archipelago, on the opposite 
coasts, are at times covered with these birds, 
and some of them obtain a name from this 
circumstance. Onthe west coast of the king- 
dom of Naples, within the space of four or 
five miles, a hundred thousand have been 
taken in a day, which have been sold for 
eight livres per hundred to dealers who carry 
them for sale to Rome. Great quantities- 
also sometimes alight in spring on the coasts 
of Provence, especially in the diocese of the 
bishop of Frejus, which is near the sea, and 
appear, at their first landing, so much fatigued 
that they are often taken by the hand. 
With us they may be said not to be plenty 
at any time. They breed with us, and the 
major part migrate south in autumn ; the rest 
only shift their quarters, as they have been 
met with on the coasts of Essex, and in Hamp- 
shire, ini the winter season, retiring thence in 
October. 
It feeds like the partridge, and, like that 
bird, makes no nest, except a few dry leaves- 
or stalks scraped together may be called so, 
and sometimes a hoilow on the bare ground 
suffices. In this the female lays her eggs to 
the number of six or seven, of a whitish co- 
lour, marked with irregular rust-coloured 
spots : the young follow the mother as soon 
as hatched, like young partridges. They 
have but one brood in a year. 
Quail-fighting was a favourite amusement 
among the Athenians. They abstained from 
the flesh of this bird, deeming it unwhole- 
some, as supposing that it fed upon tire white- 
hellebore: but they reared great numbers of 
them for the pleasure of seeing them fight ~ 
and staked sums of money, as we do with, 
cocks, upon the success of the combat. 
Fashion, however, has at present changed 
with regard to this bird: we take no pleasure 
in its courage, but its flesh is considered as a 
very great delicacy. Quails are easily caught 
by' a call : the fowler early in the morning 
having spread his net, hides himself under it 
among the corn ; he then imitates the voice 
of the female with his quail-pipe, -which the 
cock hearing, approaches with the utmost as- 
siduity ; when he has got under the net, the 
fowler then discovers himself, and terrifies the 
quail, who attempting to get away, entangles 
himself the more in the net, and is taken. 
TETRODON, a genus of fishes of the 
order nantes. The generic character is, jaws 
bony, divided at the tip ; body roughened 
beneath.; ventral tins wanting. 
9 
