Quadruple Alliance
an alliance, so called from the number of the contracting parties, concluded in 1718 between Great Britain, France, and Austria, and acceded to by Holland in 1719, for the maintenance of the peace of Utrecht. The occasion of the alliance was the seizure by Spain of Sardinia in 1717, and Sicily in 1718, both of which she was forced to give up. Another quadruple alliance was that of Austria, Russia, Great Britain, and Prussia, in 1814, originating in the coalition which had effected the dissolution of the French empire.
QUÆSTOR, in Roman history, two quæstores parricidii, who acted as public prosecutors in cases of murder, or any capital offense, existed in Rome during the period of the kings. Two quæstores classici, who had charge of the public money, were first appointed about 485 B. C. The number was doubled в. c. 421, and it was decided that they should be chosen from the patricians and the plebeians. It was not, however, till 409 QUAIL sphere, visiting Europe in early summer and returning S. in the autumn, when immense numbers are caught and fattened for the market, as their flesh is much esteemed. Length about seven inches, general color reddish-brown.
They nest on the ground, laying from 9 to 15 pyriform yellowish-white eggs, blotched with dark-brown.