142 
PICTURES OF BIRD LIFE. 
pyatensis). It is curious that this bird is known in France as Roi des Cailles, 
in Italy as Re di Quaglie, and in Germany as Wachtel-Konig. When the Quail 
escapes the above-mentioned dangers which greet its arrival, it betakes itself to 
open plains and rich grassy meadows, avoiding wooded countries. In early summer 
it frequents the standing corn, the crops of clover, lucerne, and the like. In 
September, like our partridge (of which it is in many respects a miniature), it is 
found in stubble fields, among the weeds growing by dry ponds, and in any crops 
which may yet be standing, and can afford it shelter. On the Continent it affects 
vineyards, not so much, it is said, on account of the fruit as to obtain the 
numerous small snails which then infest the vines. When put up, it makes more 
use of its legs than of its wings, like the red-legged partridge, and is never seen to 
perch on a tree. Its flight resembles that of the partridge, but it does not fly 
so far, and may on alighting be run down and sometimes even captured by the 
hand. More often in our own stubbles it rises before the sportsman and is 
brought down by his breechloader, much as Gay described partridge-shooting in 
1711— 
“See how the well-taught pointer leads the way; 
The scent grows warm ; he stops; he springs the prey ; 
The fluttering coveys from the stubble rise, 
And on swift wing divide the sounding skies; 
The scattering lead pursues the certain sight, 
And death in thunder overtakes their flight.” 
English poetry and folk-lore can scarcely attach themselves to a bird so 
seldom seen, save in certain pastoral districts of England, and so unfamiliar to 
country life and thought. But Kelly gives the symbolic meaning of the bird in 
the old Aryan myths. “The morning sun is represented in the Vedas,” he says,* 
“by twin gods, and the ruddy dawn by the goddess Ushas, who is one in name 
and fact with the Greek Eds. Her light was conceived to be a herd of red cows, 
and she herself figures in some hymns as a Quail. Vartikd, the Sanscrit name 
of the bird, corresponds etymologically with ortyx , its Greek name ; and in the 
myths of Greece and Asia Minor the Quail is a symbol of light or heat.” It 
might have been from a Christian view of this myth that a tradition represents 
St. John as having been fond of a tame partridge or Quail during the later years 
of his life, and defending himself against the charge of trifling by the remark 
that the bow must sometimes be unbent. A similar bird appears in Bellini’s picture 
(in the National Gallery) of St. Jerome in his study. 
* “Curiosities of Indo-European Folk-lore,” p. 33. 
