. 
“ 
8 THE NATURAL HISTORY 4 
” shat cafe their flelh would occafi convulfions, 
but now they are eftcemed a . When 
they have plenty of food they become 22 
They feldom perch on trees, but a ae : 
hours together among ape enon with. 
their legs flretched out. 
It is very feldom that they flys. the Bene 9 
* ~ he hears the cry of the female, will 
way among the grafs, rather than ule his . 
In the winter it is faid that they fometines bar- 
row under the fhow, and they have been found 
in a torpid ftate in ant hills. 
It. is thought that Quails live bat feu tive | 
years. In fome towns in Italy, as well as in 
China, fome unthinking people amuf themfelves 
_ by putting two Quails to fight: they are placed 
-oppofite to cach other at different ends of a long. 
table, and fome grains of millet are thrown be- 
tween them; they inftantly attack one another, 
ght until! one gives way. Formerly fome 
have amufed themfelves by a kind of a battle be- 
tween a Quail and a Man: the Quail was placed 
in an enclofure, in the middle of which a circle 
was traced,: the man was allowed to, ftrike the 
_ head or the beak of the bind with one finger, or 
to pull out a feather ; if the Quail in defending 
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