Quails. 
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one day, within the space of three or four miles. In 
some parts of the south of Kussia they abound so 
greatly, that at the time of their migration they are 
caught by thousands, and sent in casks to Moscow and 
St. Petersburg. The female seldom lays 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 ate 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 is often 
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. It is also very pugnacious, and 
is employed in fighting. 
THE AMEKICAN QUAIL, (Ortyx Virginianus,) 
Is larger than the Common Quail, and is something be- 
tweeu a Quail and a Partridge. 
The Californian Quail (0. Califwnicus) is distin- 
guished by its possession of a curious crest or tuft of 
feathers on the crown of the head. 
