Delighting chiefly in dry, broken, uncultivated land, it becomes scarcer in the north, but has been known to nest as far north as Caithness. The nest is a “scrape” in the grass, and the seven to twelve eggs are yellowish white blotched with umber brown. The male has a melodious call-note, which may be syllabled as “clerk, lik, lik,” to which the female answers with a soft “peu, peu.” The food consists of grain, seeds, and insects, and at the times of migration this bird becomes exceedingly fat and very good eating. The Quails that are found in our markets are usually snared in Italy during the spring migration, and used to be sent alive to this country, but they are now killed and sent dead. It was a migration of this species that supplied the Children of Israel with food in the desert, and large flocks still pass through Palestine yearly on migration. The Quail is not unlike a small Partridge, and is of a uniform sandy brown on the upper parts, with paler shafts to the feathers. The chin and throat are white, with two brown crescentic bars, and sometimes a brown streak down the centre. The breast is buffish and the under parts white. This species shows a certain amount of variation in minor details of plumage. Length 7 in.; wing 4·4 in. THE LAND-RAIL Crex pratensis, Bechstein Grass lands throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland form the summer home of this well-known and abundant species. It is a migrant, arriving towards the end of April and leaving our shores again in September, though a few individuals occasionally remain and pass the winter in Ireland and some of the western counties of England. It is always more abundant in the west, and during the last few years has become comparatively scarce and local in our eastern and south-eastern counties. The Rails are birds of poor flight and skulking habits, rarely taking to their wings unless hard pressed, and even at such times flying but a short distance with legs hanging down, and soon dropping again into the nearest cover. Immediately on his arrival the male Land-Rail, or Corncrake as it is often called, utters his well-known crake—a harsh “craak, craak,” repeated with monotonous frequency, especially during the long summer evenings and again before dawn.