Russia
and Greece. In all these countries the great bulk of the quails taken for the markets are captured in nets of various kinds, supplemented by a judicious use of quail-call," by means of which the fowler imitates the trisyllabic note of the cock bird-Whit-twit-twit-or the subdued Tri-tri of the hen. Sometimes the migrating strangers are lured towards the nets by the calls of caged decoy birds.
In former days, when quail were more plentiful in England than at present, it was a common pastime with country gentlemen to entice these birds with quail-calls, and old books on field sports often contain directions on the subject. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, tells us that in his day "many gentlemen would take a singular pleasure at morning and evening to go abroad with their quail-pipes, and take any pains to satisfie their delight in that kinde." The practice has long since fallen into disuse in England, as has also more QUARTERSTAFF] the diversion of capturing them with a trained sparrowhawk.
The comparatively few quails that are now killed in England and Ireland are all secured with the shot-gun early in September, before the autumnal migration has commenced, a few now and again being met with in winter.
It has for some years been a matter of general remark amongst sportsmen that quails are not nearly so often met with in England as was formerly the case. Whether this is due to alteration in the methods of farming and cutting the crops, whereby a great many nests and eggs are destroyed in the spring, or whether it is due to the exorbitant toll taken of the birds in the South of Europe before they can reach the British Islands, can only be surmised. It is probable that both these causes have contributed to the present scarcity of this much-coveted little game-bird.
The distribution of the quail in this country during its sojourn with us between April and the end of September has been carefully traced by Mr. Howard Saunders, in the third volume of the fourth edition of Yarrell's British Birds, and it is noteworthy that it pushes its way, not only as far north as Orkney and Shetland, but has been found even in the Faroe Islands. In Ireland it has always been more plentiful than in England-a circumstance which has been accounted for by the fact that in Ireland there is so little frost that the food of the quail may generally be procured with ease at all seasons. The Irish naturalist Thompson remarked that "the slovenly system of farming unfortunately too common in Ireland is greatly in favour of the quail, as the seeds of weeds among the stubble supply these birds during winter and at other seasons with abundance of food." Thus the mildness of the climate with a sufficient supply of food, induces many of these birds to remain the winter, as sometimes happens in the South of England, although the majority of those which escape the gun quit this country during the first month of partridge shooting.
English sportsmen desirous of making good bags of quail have to go abroad in search of them to Egypt and other parts of Africa, the Ionian Islands, India, China, and Japan. In India, the common quail is well known, where it is called the grey quail," to distinguish it from the "rainquail" (or black-breasted quail), which is also common there. Jerdon states that our bird is found throughout India in considerable numbers during the cold weather, most migrating during the rains and breeding 66 elsewhere; but a few remain and breed in various parts of the country, especially towards the west and north-west. Considerale numbers are often found together, and in certain seasons it occurs in great profusion and affords excellent sport to the gunner. Dogs stand very steadily to quail, and in the cool weather excellent sport is to be had, fifty couple being not unfrequently bagged by one gun in a morning's shooting in the North-West Provinces.
The question is sometimes asked whether the quail found in South Africa and that found in China or Japan are specifically identical with our bird, or distinct. On this point we may quote the remarks of Mr. W. Ogilvie Grant in his recentlypublished Handbook to the Game Birds (vol. i. p. 181). He says "the migratory quail has been constantly confused with two more or less resident local forms, Coturnix capensis, found in South Africa, and Coturnix japonica from Japan and ably nothing China. The former is probably nothing more than a more richly-coloured, rather smaller resident local race of our common quail, but the latter is a perfectly distinct and easily characterised species. The migratory bird, wandering over an immensely wide range, visits the countries inhabited by both these forms, and constantly interbreeds with them, the result being that all sorts of intermediate forms occur."
The migratory quail also interbreeds freely with the chestnut-throated form, Coturnix capensis, found in South Africa and the islands surrounding the coast, and the results are to be seen in the many male birds from South Africa and Southern Europe, in which the white parts on the sides of the head and throat are more or less suffused with the bright rufous chestnut characteristic of the resident bird. Thus it would seem that no game-bird is better known than the quail, or stands less in need of description. It is the French caille, Italian quaglia, Spanish codorniz, German wachtel, Dutch kwakel, and Danish vagtel.
J. E. HARTING. use Its QUARTERSTAFF. - The Weapon.- The quarterstaff was formerly in common our English yeomen. among dimensions vary from 6+ feet to 8 feet, or even to 9½ feet in length and 4 or 5 inches in circumference.
Although there is no arbitrary rule as to the length, anything beyond 9 feet would be awkward to the user.
That the quarterstaff was not of an uniform length, the following verse from Evans' Old Ballads goes sonie way to prove. In the encounter between Robin Hood and Arthur a' Bland, the tanner of Nottingham, the former insists upon measuring weapons: ""But let me measure,' said jolly Robin, 'Before we begin our fray, For I'll not have mine, to be longer than thine, For that will be counted foul play.'" And we learn from the next verse that Arthur's quarterstaff was 81 feet in length, and was of oak, as was also that of Robin.
But as there was no hard and fast rule as to length, so neither was there as to material, and we may be sure that there were as many good staves of ash or any other suitable wood, as easily procured, as there were of oak.
We may assume that the quarterstaff was never less than 6 feet, for it bore the same relation to the singlestick, as the twohanded sword did to the ordinary sword. Its History, Literature, &c.
The etymology of the word is not very certain, and in default of a better we must take Dr. Johnson's view, that it is so called from - CRBB.
QUARTERSTAFF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. the manner of using it: "One hand being placed at the middle, and the other equally between the end and the middle." This, to our mind, is not a very satisfactory reason for the name, even if the staff were invariably held in this manner, but, as a matter of fact, it is more usually held with both hands in the middle, about 2 feet apart, or in other words, each hand about I foot from the middle.
It seems curious at first sight that so little should have been written either about the singlestick or the quarterstaff, seeing that almost every Old English sport has had its historian, and many of them a literature of their own, but, while little enough has been written on singlestick, the writer on the quarterstaff has practically no data to go upon.
Were it not for the well-described scene of a "bout" with this weapon in the pages of Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe, Chap. XI, between the swineherd Gurth, and "the Miller," one of Robin Hood's men; and a short account in Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the English People, and another in Chambers's Book of Days, together with a few legendary ballads, the sport would possibly have been lost, and [QUARTERSTAFF never revived, even in the gymnasium, which is the only place in which it is now practised. The revival occurred, if we recollect right, about the year 1868, and was brought about by Captain Hutton of the King's Dragoon Guards.
The dearth of literature on the singlestick may be accounted for by the fact that it is only the dummy or practice weapon of the sword, about which everything that can be said has been said.
In like manner, the quarterstaff may have been the practice weapon of the Partisan, some earlier examples of whose blades partook more of the character of a sword than of a spear, notably one of Edward IV.'s time (vide Skelton's Illustrations of the Meyrick Collection, plate 87, vol. ii.).
This, however, is only conjecture, and the quarterstaff may possibly have been only evolved from the ordinary staff, for the quarterstaff has existed in everything but name in every age and country.
There is, we believe, no mention of the quarterstaff by name in Chaucer or in