The nest is placed on the ground, among the growing corn, or under the shelter of an untrimmed hedge, and is a mere hollow scratched in the earth, with a slight lining of dead grass and leaves. The eggs vary in number from six or seven to eighteen, and are of a uniform olive-brown colour. When the young have been hatched by the female the male assists in rearing and protecting them, and both birds display intense anxiety and great boldness in the presence of danger, and will drag themselves over the ground, with flapping and trailing wings, within a few yards of a man or dog, to entice him away from their chicks. The young feed principally on insect food, small caterpillars, and larvæ of ants, of which they are extremely fond. The old birds include green leaves, buds, grain, and seeds of weeds, in their dietary. Quail. Coturnix communis. [Illustration: FIG. 92.--QUAIL. ⅕ natural size.] Head mottled with black and reddish brown, with three parallel, longitudinal, yellowish streaks; upper parts ash-brown variegated with black and straw-colour; neck reddish yellow, with a double crescent of dusky brown; breast pale reddish brown streaked with white; bill and feet yellowish brown. Length, eight inches. _Female_: paler, and wanting the double crescent on the neck. * * * * * The quail is a summer visitor to this country, arriving in May. It is nowhere a common bird, although widely distributed, and it has been found breeding in most parts of the British Islands. Occasionally it is met with in winter, most often in Ireland. Immediately after its arrival the call of the male is heard morning and evening, a shrill, piping note of three syllables, supposed to resemble the words _wet my lips_, or _wet my feet_, according to the hearer’s fancy. This call is repeated again and again, with some slight variation in the sound. The nest is a slight hollow scratched in a cornfield, among grass or clover, and the eggs number seven or eight to twelve, and even a larger number is sometimes found. They are speckled and blotched with umber-brown on a yellowish white ground. Two broods are reared in the season. The quail prefers open, rough grass country to cultivated land. Its food consists of seeds, grain, and insects. The quail is in appearance a very small partridge, being little more than half the size of that bird. It is singular that in the very limited number of gallinaceous birds that exist wild in this country there should be included the capercaillie, the largest of the order, with, perhaps, the exception of one American species, and the diminutive quail--a giant and a pigmy.