74 
NATURE STUDY NOTES 
HABITS—Has a very swift flight, making a loud 
whirring noise when rising from the ground; glides 
with outspread wings, before alighting; haunts 
waste lands most, but also found in cultivated dis¬ 
tricts ; does not hop, but runs very fast; walks 
when undisturbed. 
NOTES—Nelson was the first district into which 
this bird was introduced, nearly seventy years ago. 
It increased in numbers so rapidly that a quail¬ 
canning industry prospered for some years, and as 
many as 20,000 frozen quail were sent from Nelson 
to London in one shipment. One of its original 
homes is the famous Yosemite Valley which 
includes the Californian National Park. • Its worst 
enemies are stoats, weasels, ferrets, rats and wild¬ 
cats, which undoubtedly dispose of large numbers 
of them; and yet it is evident that quail have 
increased in some districts where stoats and weasels 
are also numerous. The theory has been advanced 
t at quail are subject to a mysterious natural law, 
causing alternating periods of increase and decrease 
in numbers. 
THE REDPOLL 
SONG—Variable, but its notes are loud and clear. 
PLUMAGE— Forehead, red and edged by a 
brown band; breast, carmine pink, streaked with 
brown; upper parts, brown. (See p. 59.) 
FOOD—Grass seeds, including those of toe-toe 
grass; also weed seeds, buds of young trees, and 
aphides, especially the rose aphis. 
NOTES Its flight is nimble and buoyant. Red- 
p° s are often seen in large numbers near sandhills, 
especially in winter. 
