Quails (tetrao corturnix, Lin.) are birds of passage from the coast of
Barbary to Italy, and have frequently settled in large shoals on ships
fatigued with their flight. (Ray, Wisdom of God, p. 129. Derham. Physic.
Theol. v. ii. p. 178,) Dr. Ruffel, in his History of Aleppo, observes that
the swallows visit that country about the end of February, and having
hatched their young disappear about the end of July; and returning again
about the beginning of October, continue about a fortnight, and then again
disappear. (P. 70.)

When my late friend Dr. Chambres, of Derby, was on the island of Caprea in
the bay of Naples, he was informed that great flights of quails annually
settle on that island about the beginning of May, in their passage from
Africa to Europe. And that they always come when the south-east wind blows,
are fatigued when they rest on this island, and are taken in such amazing
quantities and sold to the Continent, that the inhabitants pay the bishop
his stipend out of the profits arising from the sale of them.

The flights of these birds across the Mediterranean are recorded near three
thousand years ago. "There went forth a wind from the Lord and brought
quails from the sea, and let them fall upon the camp, a day's journey round
about it, and they were two cubits above the earth," (Numbers, chap. ii.
ver. 31.)

In our country, Mr. Pennant informs us, that some quails migrate, and
others only remove from the internal parts of the island to the coasts,
(Zoology, octavo, 210.) Some of the ringdoves and stares breed here, others
migrate, (ibid. 510, ii.) And the slender billed small birds do not all
quit these kingdoms in the winter, though the difficulty of procuring the
worms and insects, that they feed on, supplies the same reason for