QUAIL. 231 
another on the 30th., at March; and another on the 3lst.,. 
captured near Guyhirn. 
In Bedfordshire, one in February, 1833; in Shropshire, one 
at Shiffnal, on the 20th. of January, 1846. In Norfolk, at 
Reedham on the 11th.; at Bawburgh on the 14th.; near 
Loddon, a pair, male and female, on the 19th.; one near 
Norwich, on the 23rd. of December, 1846; and another in 
the following month, January, 1847. On the 26th. of August, 
1848, a hen bird and a young one were captured at Drayton. 
Two were killed at Bottisham, Cambridgeshire, on the 11th. 
of November, 1825; and one at Topham, in the end of 
January. One at Normanby-by-Spital, Lincolnshire, by the 
Rev. Edward Cooper, B.A., on the Ist. of February, 1853. 
Two in Oxfordshire, followed by two others on the 10th. of 
November, 1846, and the 9th. of December, 1848. In De- 
cember, in Oxfordshire, near Spoden; and on the 12th. of 
February, 1840, at Hast Ilsley, i Berkshire, and tuey have 
also been seen in that county in the winter not far from 
Wallingford, William Hewet, Esq. tells me. The Rev. 
Frederic Fane writes me word of others killed in December 
and January, in Hampshire and Dorsetshire; another also in 
that county at Brickland, near Weymouth, the last week in 
January, 1853. 
The males have desperate encounters with each other in the 
spring. ‘These birds are very delicate eating, and the demand 
in consequence keeps pace with the large supply. They are 
easily kept in confinement, and as easily fattened. ‘They are 
captured in nets and traps, into which latter they are decoyed 
by imitating their note, and are also shot in numbers. 
They run with great rapidity, and can take long flights, 
as proved by their migration, but while here they are difficult 
to put up a second time after they have been once flushed. 
They fly quick, straight, and low, rising suddenly and uttering 
a scream. 
They feed on grain, seeds, green leaves, and insects. 
Their voice is a shrill whistling note, a ‘whit, whit,’ usually 
repeated three times in succession, and considered on the 
continent as a sort of song. It is often and incessantly re- 
peated nearly the whole of the day in the spring season, but 
especially towards the evening. When fighting with one 
another they utter a sort of croak. Bechstein likens the 
note of the male to ‘verra, verra,’ followed by the word 
‘pievervie; that of the female by ‘verra, verra, pupu, pupu,’ 
