poulterer’s shop in London, which had been sent up from
Cambridgeshire, and as these birds had no wound about
them, I had no doubt they had been, caught by fowlers
when drawing nets for Larks. Of these six, three were
females. Mr. H. T. Frere (Zoologist, p. ,871) refers to
the late appearance of Quails in Oxfordshire in the following
terms :—“ In consequencè of some fields of -cern-remaining
in this part of England, still standing in December, 1844,
Quails did not leavé us till very latei After several days of
severe frost, I heard of a pair having been seen in a field,
in the parish of Hornsey, near this town. I cannot remember
the exact date, but it was some timë in December;
and in the last week in November, I saw a pair in this
market, where they have been more plentiful than usual
this autumn, which had been killed down in the fens.1 The
birds seen at Hornsey had not been driven away by intense
frost, which, curious to say, prevailed while the barley.where
they lay was being carried.” In thé winter olf 1847, and
again in December 1865 and January 1866, Quails were
obtained in sevéraF localities of the east and north-east of
England. The majority, however, arrive in this*' country in
May, and seem more partial- to -open .champaign countries
than to those which are enelóSed';’ -
Sparingly distributed throughout the country, there are
few districts in which? Quail'8 have mót at one time or another
been recorded as breeding"; and few also in which their
appearance can be counted upon either-with regularity or in
anything like average numbers. In some parts of Cornwall,
a. good- many are bred, the year 1870 having proved
unusually favourable for hatching; and about Bridgewater in
Somersetshire, a fair number nest annually. In other parks
of the west- they appear to be uncommon, at least beyond
Brèconshirè and Cheshire j but eastward they are to Be
found scattered about most," if'not all, of the southern and
midland counties. .At hue time Quails’we^I far more partial
than they are at present to Hertford, Cambridgeshire, and
thé fén-district; and in Norfolk, and also in Lincolnshire,
they are far legs abundant than in former yéarsj w-hën' drainage
and high cultivation had not yet broken up the coarse,
tussocky, unimproved land in which they delighted. Tn the
Holderness district of Eastern Yorkshire'they breed annually
in small numbers; and, although local, their nests have
been found in Durham and Northumberland., Northwards,
thè eastern coast of Scotland is! less suitable to their requirements;
and except in the ’Lowlands, to the- south of the
Friths, of the Forth and the Clyde, Quails are rare, although
nests have been found in the east of Sutherland and in
Caithness. The milder west eoast offers greater attractions;
especially the counties of Kirkcudbright, Wigton, and Ayr)
and Quails .have even bred sp fab | west as the islands of
Lewis and ->North Uist in jh e Outer Hebrides: Mr. J. H.
Dunn obtained a nest ^containing. eleven eggs ©n the 4th
October,H'851, near Stropaness in the Orkneys,* and Dr.
Saxby recordstethe finding of one with-ten eggs on thè 25th
September, 1868, at-'Burrafirlh in TJn-st; the most northern
island of the Shetland group,—Fut the extension of range
in this north-eastern direction'is. hot so remarkable, 'Seeing
that the summer-visits of this species extend to the Faeroes.
In Ireland Quailst'are both' more generally distributed than in
Great Britain, and a far larger number remain throughout
the winter,Tespecially in-the south and south-western districts,
where frost iFseldom félt-y -the. north-eastern - portion being,
apparently ^preferred during the breeding-season".
A summer-visitant in no great abundance to Scandinavia
and Northern Russia up to aboutï S:ë° N . lat,*, this species
becomes more common in Denmark and Northern Germany;
and from thence southwards Quails are numerous) especially
oh migration,- throughout the. remainder -of the. Continent'.
Their extreme western limit is* at the Azores;* where, according
to Mr. Godman, they are resident and not -migratory*,
breedingtwiCe ;and even-three times-in the year"; and Dr. Bolle
says substantially the same of those found in the Canaries.
These resident birds are- small in sizè;4 and -the males
* Large numbers h.aYeJoe^n tp^ned out in America, especially in the fStat? of
Vermont, fpiererin 1877*a flourishing stock“oi birds had been secured,
# . 1. Haïting, ‘ ZooV,CÏ878, ’