QUAIL SHOOTING 
Spain and Portugal, which are very accessible from England, claim the 
first attention; Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt come next; France, Austria- 
Hungary, Italy, Turkey, the Balkan States, Roumania and Greece all 
afford good quail shooting at the proper season; and finally, after Egypt 
and the Nile country, India, and perhaps Ceylon, offer the best sport to 
be obtained with this little game bird. 
It may be well to take a glance at the different countries in which quail 
are to be met with, including some further north than those above-men- 
tioned, in order that the reader may know what to expect in making choice 
of his field of operations in one or other of three continents. Let us begin 
with the north of Europe : 
SCANDINAVIA. — ^No one would go specially to Sweden or Norway 
for the purpose of getting good quail shooting, although in Sweden this 
bird is found sparingly up to about 59° N. lat., according to Wheelwright 
(“ The Old Bushman ”) who resided long in that country.* 
Saunders says of the quail, “ a summer visitant in no great abundance 
in Scandinavia and Russia up to about 65° N. lat., becoming more common 
in Denmark and northern Germany. ”f 
Lloyd found it rare in the vicinity of Ronnum, and also in the west of 
Sweden, but in certain localities near the east coast and in Scania it was 
not uncommon at the proper season, the shooting being over pointers. $ 
Count Eric von Rosen, writing from Rockelsbad, Sparreholm, August 29, 
1912, says: “That quails are of very uncertain appearance in Sweden, 
being found occasionally in districts where they have not been met with 
for many years previously. They occur in the following provinces: Skane, 
Halland, Oland, and more rarely in Wester Gotland, Oster Gotland and 
Wiirmland, and have been found breeding near the town of Hernosand 
63°30, and in the north of Jemtland up to 64°. ” He adds that the quail is 
so rarely shot that it hardly deserves to be called a Swedish game-bird, 
and it is not specially protected. The shooting season for partridge and 
willow-grouse or ryper is from September 1 to November 1 . 
In Norway quails in some years are not uncommonly met with, as in 
Upper Tellemarken, and even in the neighbourhood of Christiania, pre- 
ferring the open country and wide tracts of arable land. In the Danish 
Islands also it is said to be fairly numerous between May and October. 
*Ten Years in Sweden, p. 350. 
^Manual of British Birds, 2nd Ed., p. 125. 
XGame-birds and Wildfowl of Sweden and Norway, p. 177. 
207 
