COMMON QUAIL. 107 
blotched with oil-green, and, except in form, are 
somewhat similar to those of the snipe. 
In France the Quail is very abundant ; and, be- 
sides supplying the markets of that country, thou- 
sands are imported alive by the London poulterers, 
and fattened for the luxury of the metropolis. They 
are taken by nets, into which they are decoyed by 
imitating their call. On the coast of Italy and 
Sicily, and all the Greek islands, they arrive at 
certain seasons in immense numbers. An hundred 
thousand are said to have been taken in one day. 
They are run after during the flight like the pas- 
senger pigeons of America, and a harvest is ga- 
thered when the numbers are greatest. In Sicily, 
crowds of all ages and degrees assemble on the 
shore. The number of boats is even greater than 
the crowd ; and enviable is the lot of the idle ap- 
prentice, who, with a borrowed musket or pistol, 
no matter how unsafe, has gained possession of the 
farthest rock, where there is but room for himself 
and his dog, which he has fed with bread only, all 
the year round, for these delightful days, and 
which sits, in as happy expectation as himself, for 
the arrival of the Quails. Ortygia was named 
from them ; and so abundant were they on Capri, 
an island at the entrance 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 one year the capture amounted 
to one hundred and sixty thousand. In China, 
and in many of the eastern islands, and Malacea, 
