270 A DESCRIPTION OF 
ground. The habits and manner of living of these birds 
resemble those of the partridge, and they are either caught 
in nets by decoy birds, or shot by the help of the setting 
dog, their call being easily imitated by tapping two pieces 
of copper one against another. The flesh of the Quail is 
very luscious, and next in taste to that of the partridge. 
Quails are birds of passage, the only peculiarity in which 
they differ from all other of the poultry kind ; and such 
prodigious numbers have sometimes appeared on the 
western coast of the kingdom of Naples, that one hundred 
thousand have been caught in one day, within the spnce 
of three or four miles. In some parts of the south of Rus- 
sia, they abound so greatly, that at the time of their mi- 
gration they are caught by thousands, and sent in casks to 
Moscow and St. Petersburg. The female lays seldom 
more than six or seven eggs. 
The ancient Athenians kept this bird, merely for the 
sport of fighting with each other, as game cocks do, and 
never eat the flesh. The Quail was that wild fowl which 
God thought proper to send to the chosen people of Israel, 
as a sustenance for them in the desert. 
The Chinese Quail is a beautiful little bird, and speci- 
mens are kept in cages in China, for the singular purpose, 
as it is said, of warming people's hands in winter; as 
taking the soft warm body of the bird in the hand diffuses 
through it an agreeable warmth. 
The American Quail (Ortyx borealis) is larger than the 
common Quail, and is indeed something between a Quail 
and a partridge. 
