THE COMMON QUAIL. 
119 
by imitating their call. On the coast of Italy and Si- 
cily, 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 dtiring 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 degrees 
assemble on the shore. The number of boats is even 
greater ; and enviable is the lot of the idle appren- 
tice, who, with a borrowed musket or pistol, no mat- 
ter 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 en- 
trance of the Gulf of Naples, that they formed the 
principal revenue of tlie 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 east- 
ern islands, and Malacca, they are also very abund- 
ant, performing regular migrations fi'om the interior 
to the coast. Here they are domesticated along with 
a small species of Ortygis, and trained to fight. 
Large 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’s Travels. 
