QUAIL 
May 10 quails pass in countless numbers, but of late years they have 
diminished considerably. The migration appears to take place entirely 
during the night and early morning, and ceases at daybreak, when the 
birds settle down for the day. 
The number of migrants varies greatly in different years; their move- 
ments being largely, if not entirely, regulated by the prevailing winds, the 
food supply, and the seasonal conditions of the countries which they visit. 
Distribution in the British Isles . — ^The quail is now principally a spring- 
visitor, and leaves us early in October, but in mild winters a few often 
remain in the west and south-west of England and in Ireland. Though 
formerly a partial resident in Ireland, its numbers seem to have steadily 
decreased during the latter half of the last century for no apparent reason. 
As Saunders concisely puts it : “In England before drainage and high 
cultivation had broken up the coarse, tussocky land in which the quail 
delighted, it was far more plentiful than it is at present, particularly 
in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Lanca- 
shire, etc., but from time to time unusual influxes take place. One of 
these extended, in 1870, from East Anglia to Cardigan, Pembroke, and 
Cornwall ; in 1885 a remarkable increase was noticed on the high ground 
along the north side of the valley of the Thames and as far as the 
Severn ; while in 1892 there was a marked accession, and a still 
larger immigration in 1903. Northward, the quail gradually becomes 
less numerous, yet nests have been found in Scotland as far as Caithness, 
Sutherland, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands, several times in the Outer 
Hebrides, and not infrequently in the south-west of the main land.” 
The cause of the comparative scarcity of the quail, especially in this 
country, is no doubt largely due to the wholesale netting of the birds in 
the Mediterranean countries during the spring migration, to meet the 
enormous demands in the markets which supply the great cities of Europe. 
At that season quails are generally in poor condition, and unfit for the 
table, but the captured millions are crowded together in long narrow 
darkened cages, where they cannot see to fight with one another, and 
those that survive, about one -third, are readily fattened on millet and 
hemp-seed, etc., for the market. 
At the International Sports Congress, held at Vienna in 1910, a formal 
resolution was passed to the following effect: 
The Second International Sporting Congress recognizes the desira- 
bility that quail shooting should be closed in all States at a season as 
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