Abstract
MR. SAWBRIDGE (p. 605) has raised one of the most perplexing points connected with bird-migration. I cannot answer for the eastern counties of England, but here, in the south-west of Scotland, we are still further from the headquarters of the quail than he is. Fifty years ago quails bred regularly in western Galloway; as a boy I recollect that two or three brace were quite a common complement to a September bag. Indeed, when a “cheeper” or undersized partridge was shot, “Put it down as a quail!” was the usual comment. These birds gradually disappeared; the last that I myself shot was about the year 1868; but an odd one has been obtained here and there in the district ever since. One, I know, was shot last month in the neighbourhood of Newton Stewart, and was reckoned such a curiosity that it was sent to the bird-stuffer. I am sorry that I do not know whether it was a young or an old bird. Besides this, other instances, if I mistake not, have been recorded in the Field from different parts of the country.
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MAXWELL, H. A Rare Game Bird. Nature 72, 630 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072630b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072630b0
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