THE COMMON QUAIL. 
78 
ill a valuable memoir on the Quails and Hemipodii of India^* in 
which an ample acquaintance with these birds is manifested, coin- 
cides with Temminck in the opinion, that quails emigrate for 
food, rather than to enjoy an equable climate ” in proof of which 
it is mentioned, that the great changes of temperature in India 
do not influence the movements of this species, food being abun- 
dant at all seasons — the common quail of Europe is resident 
there. 
In Ireland there is so little frost, that the food of the quail may 
generally be procured with ease, a fact so far corroborative of the 
view just mentioned. But I have had evidence of the effect 
of cold upon this species, by finding it among rushes close 
to the sea-side (Belfast bay) in severe frost, from which our 
indigenous birds were likewise suffering, and have known one on 
such occasions to be shot at low water, on the oozy banks of the 
bay, a furlong from the shore. t In the county of Wexford, quails 
are frequently met with in marshes of large extent. J 
The quail is generally characterized as a polygamous bird, which 
I cannot consider correct, at least in reference to Ireland. The 
universal impression, so far as I have questioned persons well 
acquainted with the bird, is, that it regularly pairs. Indeed, in 
the north, it is generally met with in pairs, not only in 
summer, but in winter. Mr. Poole, considering the pairing as 
a matter of course, from these birds having so occurred to him 
in summer, quail-shooting is a favourite amusement, these birds being then very 
abundant on the lizeries, or flat alluvial grounds, bordering the shore, and constituting 
the islands of the Tagus. 
* Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. ii. ; and largely quoted in 
Yarrell’s ‘Brit. Birds.’ 
t Pennant mentions his having been assured “that these birds migrate out of the 
neighbouring inland counties, into the hundreds of Essex, in October, and continue 
there all the winter : if frost or snow drive them out of tJie stubble fields and 
marshes, they retreat to the sea-side, shelter themselves among the weeds, and live 
upon what they can pick up from the algce, &c. between high and low-water mark. 
Our friend remarks, that the time of their a2)pearance in Essex coincides with that 
of their leaving the inland counties ; the same observation has been made in Hamp- 
shire .” — British Zoology. T have not met with any allusion to this in subsequent 
works on British Ornithology. It would be desirable to know if such be the case 
at the present time. 
I Poole. 
