oe 




OF BIRDS. | 79 
among the fea plants, feeding upon the infects, 
and what they find among the fea weeds. 
_ As foon as they arrive in France, they begin to 
make their nefts, by digging a hollow with their 
claws in the ground, which they line with grafs 
and leaves, concealing it as: much as poffible from 
the fight of birds of prey. 
They do not pair, and the number of males is 
id to be much gréater than that of the females. 
The hen lays from fifteen to twenty eggs in 
France ; in fome countries it is faid that they lay 
but fix or fevers | a 
The little Quails can run as foon as. they are 
hatched ; in eight or ten days they may be taken, 
from their mother, and brought up tame. Tn 
four months they are ftrong enough to accom- 
pany the old Quails in their migrations. 
~~ They moult twice a year, at the end of win- 
ter and of fummer ; they are a month in getting 
their new feathers, which they immediately em- 
ploy to migrate with. | eee 
The male bird is often enticed by a call, which 
counterfeits the cry of the female, w 
They feed on millet and hemp, and corn when 
green, on infects, and all forts of grain. The 
ancients avoided eating Quails, imagining that 
they occafionally fed on hellebore, and i 
; ¢ 
be Sa 
— 
2 : 
