THIS COMMON QUAIL* 
97 
by imitating; their rail. On llie coast of Italy anti Si- 
cily, and all the Greek islands, they arrive at certain 
seasons in immense n umbers. An hundred thousand 
are said to have hern 1 siren in one day. They are run 
after during the flight like the passenger pigeons of 
America, and a harvest is gathered when the numbers 
are greatest. In Sicily, crowds of all ages and degree* 
assemble on the shore. The number of boats is even 
greater; rmd enviable is ilie lot of the idle appren- 
tice, who, with a borrowed musket or pistol, no mat- 
ter how unsafe, has gained possession of ilie farthest 
rock, where there is hut room for himself and his 
dog, which he has tied with bread only, all the year 
round for these delightful days, and which s’ts in as 
happy expectation as himself for the arrival of tho 
quails.* Ortygia was named from them ; and so 
abundant were they on Capri,, an island at the en- 
trance of the Gulf of Naples, that they formed the 
principal revenue of the bishop of the island. From 
twelve to sixty thousand were annually taken; and 
onu year the capture amounted to one hundred and 
sixty thousand. In China, and in many of the east- 
ern islands, and Malacca, they are also very abund- 
ant, pei running regular migrations from the interior 
to the coast. Here they are domesticated along with 
a small species of Ortygis, and trained to fight. 
Largo stakes are risked upon the result, as in the 
cockpit- They are also used by the Chinese to warm 
their hands in cold weather, their bodies being thought 
■ Galt'a Travels. 
VOL. XV. 
1 
