118 
THE COMMON QUAIL. 
THE COMMON QUAIL 
Seems to be generally distributed over the old 
world, though, in the south of Europe, it is perhaps 
as abundant ns elsewhere. In Britain they may now 
be termed only an occasional visitant, the numbers 
of those w'hich arrive to breed having consiilerably de- 
creased, and they are to be met with certainty only in 
some of the warmer southern or midland counties of 
England. Thirty years since they were tolerably 
common and regular in their returns ; and even in 
the south of Scotland a few broods were occasional- 
ly to be found. In these same districts they are 
now very uncertain. We have known of broods 
twice, and occasionally have shot a straggler appa- 
rently on its way to the south. They are extremely 
difficult to flush after the first time. The nest is 
made by the female, but, like the partridges, the 
eggs are deposited almost on the bare ground ; these, 
also, unlike the uniform tint which we find prevailing 
in those of the true partridges, are deeply blotched 
with oil-gi'een, and, except in form, are somewhat si- 
milar to those of the snipe. In France they are 
very abundant ; and besides supplying the markets of 
that country, thousands 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 
