THE COMMON QUAIL. 
75 
from both cages, indicated from a distance their “ whereabouts/^ 
and thus saved me the trouble of making any inquiry respect- 
ing it. 
The call of the quail, interpreted wet -my -foot is frequently 
uttered from earliest dawn to latest eve in spring and the more 
genial periods of the year, and during winter also may occasionally 
be heard in the north of Ireland.f I have very frequently heard 
it in September half an hour after sunset, and listened to what 
seemed to be their calling and answering each other until dusk. 
Indeed, their notes may sometimes be heard in their ordinary 
haunts during the night. On more than one occasion in the 
summer of 1846, quails, when flying across Belfast bay by night, 
were heard to utter their ordinary call. 
A correspondent remarks, that there is great variety in the 
colour of quails^ eggs, some being nearly covered with dark spots, 
and others almost plain.^'’ So late as the 24th of September 1834, 
a friend sprung one of these birds from its nest, and on the 9th 
or 10th of October in the same year, he met with two broods of 
young birds, some of which could not fly. On the 7th of Octo- 
ber, 1845, an old quail was shot near Belfast, by John Garner, 
Esq., of Garnerville, and by his dog continuing to point near the 
place whence it sprang, three young birds, about that number 
of days old, were procured. One of these, together with the 
parent, being sent by that gentleman to the Belfast Museum, 
I availed myself of the opportunity of ascertaining the food they 
contained. The stomach of the parent was chiefly filled with the 
seeds of the reed {Armzdo johragmitis) , together with fragments 
of stone : — in the young there were none of these seeds, but 
* In some contiiientfil countries, particularly in Holland, I have been surprised to 
see poor quails imprisoned in miserably small cages, and hung outside the windows 
like singing birds, apparently for their innsic, consisting only of the above three 
notes. True, in Loudon they are still more cruelly treated, though for a different 
purpose; — that of being fattened for the table. They are granted only sufficient 
room to enable them to stand up and feed. 
t Yarrell remarks, that “ they are said to lose their voice when the breeding 
season is over, as they are not heard to exercise their notes afterwards, f 
B. B. vol. ii. 402, 2nd edit. 
