This interesting game-bird is found all over our country, and in Canada and Nova Scotia. It is said to be migratory, and that it passes in winter from the Northern and Eastern States, and the cold regions of the Alleghany Mountains, to the sea-coast of the Southern and Middle States, and into the peninsula of Florida. It is not found in great numbers east of the Hudson and north of the Mohawk, but is extremely abundant in the Middle, Southern, and Western States. In a walk with dog and gun, of a mile to a mile and a half in Burlington county, New Jersey, I have frequently flushed from ten to fifteen coveys; and in the bottom-lands of the Potomac, above tide-water, I have found them so abundant as really to distract the attention of both dog and sportsman. I am informed that they are equally abundant below. They appear to congregate in such places from the more barren high grounds of the vicinity. I have also found them very abundant in the stubble-fields of the lower part of the Chesapeake and its tributaries. I once spent the months of November and December in the neighbourhood of Mobjack Bay, and found the fields there so well supplied with them, that hunting of them lost some of its zest, for the want of the exercise and fatigue of the search.

I have never gunned for them in the Western States, but from the representations of others, their numbers there exceed any knowledge we have of them on the Atlantic.

Being entirely a granivorous and insectivorous bird, they suffer exceedingly in severe winters, when the ground is a long time covered with deep snow. It is not -uncommon, after such seasons, when the snow has disappeared, to find entire coveys frozen and dead, in the positions they usually occupy when at roost. Also, at such seasons, the difficulty of procuring food places them completely in the power of trappers, by whom vast numbers are annually destroyed. But another fertile source of destruction is, in robbing their nests and bringing their eggs to market It behooves every friend of the delightful and healthy amusement which the hunting of these birds affords, zealously to discourage this most shocking practice, and every owner of a farm to 'prohibit his negroes from pursuing it, as it is only where negroes exist that I have found this practice pursued to a pernicious extent.

Fair and legitimate gunning cannot be said to be destructive of these birds, but in fact tends to their preservation. By scattering and dividing the coveys, the effect of frequent gunning on them, they are less injured by trapping, and afford from their divided, state so little encouragement to trappers, that this method of taking them is nearly abandoned where gunning is actively pursued. These birds breed so abundantly, that it is not necessary that many should be preserved to keep up the stock. The gunner rarely destroys a covey, and when it becomes much reduced, seeks other ground, by which a sufficient number to breed are always spared; but the trapper, on th\e contrary, as rarely avoids capturing the entire Covey, and two or three heavy snows enable him completely to extirpate this bird within the limit of his operations. On this reasoning, I have been able to account for a singular experience, which, as it is the result of many years of observation, may be received as a correct general truth. There is a part of Burlington county, New Jersey, in which I have been in the habit of gunning for many years. Some of the farmers in this neighbourhood leave their grounds open to all gunners, after the season under the law has commenced; others place their grounds under an interdict. These open grounds, in consequence, are visited by more gunners, and yet it is a singular fact that birds are here always to be found, and the stock renewed every fall, and apparently increasing, and not a trap is to be observed. On the contrary, when I have obtained permission to hunt on these interdicted grounds, I have uniformly been disappointed, finding very few birds, but the remains of a trap in nearly every hedge. Were I, therefore, to propose a plan of preserving these birds, it would be by prohibiting the robbing of their nests, fixing the season of shooting them by law, and then permitting all sportsmen to gun for them as frequently as they pleased.

The quail builds its nest early in May, and is fond of a clover field for such a purpose. It usually seeks the shelter of a tuft of grass, and uses leaves and fine dry grass as materials for its nest. It lays from fifteen to twenty-four eggs, and many are of an opinion, that in the Middle and Southern States, it produces two broods a year. One thing is certain, that it is not uncommon in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, to find it setting about harvest, and I have frequently in October found the young not more than a third grown. The period of incubation is about four weeks.

They have never been domesticated. Their eggs have been hatched under the hen, and the young raised, and sufficiently tamed to occupy the barn-yard during -the succeeding witter; but universally in the spring they would betake themselves to the fields, pair, and breed; and have never been known to return again to the barn-yard.

The American quail is much larger than the European, full a third, and breeds more abundantly. Endeavours have been made to transport it to Europe, particularly to England, but I have not understood with what success. They prefer dry and open grounds, will feed upon any grain, but are particularly fond of buckwheat, and I have thought that birds shot from the stubble of this grain, were of a very delicate flavour and remarkably juicy.

Considering its numbers, size, good conduct before the dog, and its delicacy as a food, it may be ranked as the most interesting of our game-birds, and particularly when we bear in mind, that the sportsman has not, as when after the snipe and woodcock, to seek for it in swamps and wet places. It is unquestionably the finest bird upon which to break a dog, and well trained on this, he may be trusted on any other game.