File:Four feet, wings, and fins (1879) (14779213044).jpg

Identifier: fourfeetwingsfin00mask (find matches)
Title: Four feet, wings, and fins
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Maskell, A. E. Anderson- Mrs
Subjects: Zoology
Publisher: Boston, D. Lothrop and Co
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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alled the quail; while in Pennsyl-vania and southward it is called he partridge; I amnot inclined to accept that statement. However theterm partridge is so confusedly applied that it isdifficult telling just where the dividing line comes.Both are Gallinacious birds, both belong to thefamily Perdicidcs and both to the same genus, Ortyx\yet they are different species. Quails are smallerthan partridges. Partridges have a naked placebetween the eyes, and the figure of a horseshoe ontheir breasts; quails have not. Quails do not lay somany eggs as the partridge, and they are different incolor; yet they feed, form their nests, and rear theiryoung in the same way. Quails are so plentiful insome parts of the old world that a hundred thousandhave been caught in one day within the space ofthree or four miles. Those which are found in thecountry through which the Israelites passed on theirway to Canaan, are of remarkably large size. Twice,when these people murmured for flesh, large quan- 280 QQ g
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BOB WHITE. tities of quails were sent, until each family collectedabout eighty bushels, and they feasted and feasteduntil they became sick. I suppose. Miss Montague, coming from theWest, you know more about grouse, than quails orpartridges, though all belong to the grouse tribe ? I have seen a great many pinnated grouse, orprairie-chickens. We think it the queen of itstribe. Well, you are right, take it altogether. I sup-pose its flesh is most excellent) Delicious. No other fowl can compare with it. How much will one weigh 1 About three pounds. The male bird looks sin-gular, because of a tiny pair of wings, composedof eighteen feathers, which are attached to hisneck. Does he fly with them t asked May. No; they only seem an odd sort of ornament;and in addition to these wings, right under them,are two loose, hanging, wrinkled skins, which, wheninflated with air, resemble in size and color, amiddle-sized orange. The chin is cream-colored,the upper parts of the bird mottled with black, 28

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