QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 
227 
These are sometimes brought alive to market, and occasionally- 
bought up by sportsmen, who, if the season be very severe, 
sometimes preserve and feed them till spring, when they are 
humanely turned out to their native fields again, to be put to 
death at some future time secundum artem. Between the 
months of August and March, great numbers of these birds 
are brought to the market of Philadelphia, where they are sold 
at from twelve to eighteen cents a-piece. 
The Quail begins to build early in May. The nest is made 
on the ground, usually at the bottom of a thick tuft of grass, 
that shelters and conceals it. The materials are leaves and 
fine dry grass in considerable quantity. It is well covered 
above, and an opening left on one side for entrance. The 
female lays from fifteen to twenty-four eggs, of a pure white, 
without any spots. The time of incubation has been stated to 
me, by various persons, at four weeks, when the eggs were 
placed under the domestic hen. The young leave the nest as 
soon as they are freed from the shell, and are conducted about 
in search of food by the female ; are guided by her voice, 
which at that time resembles the twittering of young chickens, 
and sheltered by her wings, in the same manner as those of 
the domestic fowl ; but with all that secrecy and precaution 
for their safety, which their helplessness and greater danger 
require. In this situation, should the little timid family be 
unexpectedly surprised, the utmost alarm and consternation 
instantly prevail. The mother throws herself in the path, 
fluttering along, and beating the ground with her wings, as if 
sorely wounded ; using every artifice she is master of to entice 
the passenger in pursuit of herself, uttering at the same time 
certain peculiar notes of alarm, well understood by the young, 
gentleness, following each other, and are kept in the right direction by the 
sportsmen. The leading bird approaches and enters the mouth of the net — 
the others follow in succession, when the net-bearer leaps from his horse, runs 
up and secures the entrance, and soon despatches the birds. In this manner, 
fifteen or twenty Partridges are caught at one driving, and sometimes many 
hundreds in the course of the day.” — E d. 
