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Birds. 
held a distinguished place at the tables of the luxurious 
we have an old distich : 
" If the Partridge had the woodcock's thigh, 
'T would be tue best bird that e'er did fly." 
THE QUAIL, (Coturnix dactylisonans,) 
Is a small bird, being in length no more than seven 
inches. The colour of the breast is a dirty pale yellow, 
and the throat has a little mixture of red : the head is 
black, and the body and wings have black stripes upon 
a hazel-coloured ground. Its habits and manner of 
living resemble those of the partridge, and it is either 
caught in nets by decoy birds, or shot by the help of 
the setting-dog, its call being easily imitated oy tapping 
two pieces of copper one against another. The flesh of 
the Quail is very luscious, and next in flavour 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 some- 
times appeared on the western coast of the kingdom of 
Kaples, that one hundred thousand have been caught in 
