CHAPTER XI

QUAIL AND PArtridge

"They asked, and he brought quails,

And satisfied them with the bread of heaven."

-DAVID.

-ECCLESIASTICUS.

QUAILS were first mentioned by Moses in the Bible, in the history of the Exodus. After the Hebrews had crossed the Red Sea, and were on their way toward the wilderness of Sinai, they complained because of scarcity of food. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass at even that the quails came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay round about the camp. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness a small round thing, small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the Children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? For they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, It is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat."

David, in recording the flight of Israel in his poetic strain, touched upon this same incident; and he told it like the true poet he was.

"He spread a cloud for a covering;

And fire to give them light in the night.

They asked, and He brought quails,

And satisfied them with the bread of Heaven.

He opened the rock, and waters gushed out,
They ran in the dry places like a river."

Again, toward the end of the journey, the people tired of the manna, and complained because they were hungry for the fish, cucumbers, melons, onions, leeks, and garlic of Egypt. Once more Providence came to their rescue in this manner.

"And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side, and a da 's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and about two cubits above the face of the earth. And the people rose up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered up the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp."

Commentators have spent much time trying to prove that this provision of the Lord was flying fish, because they came from the sea; and again that they were some large insects, like locusts, or some birds ranging anywhere from grouse to stork. Yet the text is so much easier, clearer, and more sensible as it stands. In the first place the Hebrew "selav" means to be fat," which accurately describes the condition of the quail at the time of migration. This bird was considered the plumpest, most juicy morsel of its species for food in Bible lands. None of the alternatives mentioned were very good to eat, except the grouse, and that was not nearly so delicious as the quail. Again, the time was early spring, about our April, and the quail were migratory birds. They not only came up from Africa, and spread like clouds over the lands of Bible history; but they crossed the sea. Pliny tells of them coming into Italy in great numbers, and so wearied with their long flight that, sighting a ship, they would settle upon it so thickly as to sink it.

There is no question but this is true. Quails were birds of the earth. They built on the ground, and averaged sixteen young to the nest. If even half of a brood escaped, they soon multiplied around the edges of the deserts in Africa in such numbers as easily to form clouds. They were plump, heavy birds, and never attempted high flight. In migration they always waited until the wind

was blowing in the direction they wished to travel. Even with this help they became so exhausted in crossing water that they always stopped on any island to rest.

Now compare these scientific facts with the next. Here was the camp of Israel, lying in the Sinai Peninsula. It was spring, and the birds were in migration. The quail in their heavy, low flight followed up the Red Sea until they came to the point of the peninsula. Here they selected the narrowest place, and when the wind was in the right direction, they crossed with it. Not far from the coast they flew over the camp fires of the Israelites, which completely bewildered them, and they began to fall in confused thousands all over and around the camp. Then the Israelites arose and killed for each soul of the camp a certain number, and spread them out in the hot desert sun to dry; just as Heredotus tells us the Egyptians always have done. In this instance no miracle was needed. The workings of natural, every-day laws supplied the food received in the easiest way imaginable.

David in time reached this incident also, and from his never-failing fountain of poesy flowed this account of it:

'Man did eat the bread of the Mighty:

He sent them meat to the full.

He caused the east wind to blow in the Heaven:
And by His power guided the south wind.

He rained flesh also upon them as dust,

And winged fowl as the sand of the seas:

And He let it fall in the midst of their camp,
Round about their habitations."

The latest version of the Bible in three different passages that I find, always in comparison, mentions the partridge, which is a near relative of the quail. The partridges were a little larger than the quail, in one instance more brightly coloured, but the plumage was not so cut with pencillings, and the backs of all were very much like the browns, tans, and greys of earth. They were not of such juicy, finely flavoured flesh to eat as quail, although all of them were used for food.

Their habits were so similar that a description of one

member of any family would answer very well for the whole. They nested on the ground, laid from sixteen to twenty eggs, and left the nest with the young, that all emerged at once, as soon as the down was dry. Then they began life around the edges of the desert, in the wilderness, on the high hills, and sides of the mountains. Our quails and partridges are relatives of these birds of Bible lands, differing slightly in markings and in their eggs. Ours lay a white egg; theirs, a creamy egg with heavy, dark-brown mottlings. Also our birds, the quail especially, are much tamer, and nest near the borders of grain fields, in orchards, and meadows. There are many instances in my experience with these birds when I was sure they chose a location close to a path, by a roadside, or especially near a power-house, when I felt they were availing themselves of the protection they would receive from the presence of man near their nests, to shield them from snakes, hawks, and animals. These Oriental birds were the wildest things imaginable. They were splendid run. ners. The young, with down scarcely dry, would evade a man, and the old birds, with flashing legs and earth. coloured backs, often escaped where they had a little shelter and ran on a level.

David, in his dialogue with Saul, recorded in First Samuel, used an expression that proved, if he had not been partridge hunting himself, he had seen these birds taken. He knew how similar to the earth and dry leaves they were in colour, how swiftly they could run, how elusively they could dodge, and how motionless they could squat beside something that afforded them protective coloration, even when the human hand or foot was within a few inches of them. So he said to Saul, "The king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains." Yet on the mountains the partridges were at a disadvantage, and were easier to take with the sticks that were especially made to throw at birds, than in the fields.

Pliny wrote, in a quite complete history of the partridge, how it would slip from its nest, pretending a broken wing, and toll a man from its location. This is true to

the characteristics of the bird, if only he had quit with truth; but he added that after escaping it would lie on its back, and with its feet hold a clod above itself for cover. I am ready to affirm that no partridge ever did this. In some way he must have confused this bird with the species of hawks and owls that lie on their backs to fight, so that at the same time they can use feet, beak, and wing butts effectively, and protect the back as well. The largest number of these birds could be taken at migration times with what were called "throw sticks." After the birds were nesting or raising young, the greatest havoc could be wrought among them with nets or by using a bird of the species as a decoy, as is described in the first chapter of this book. It is this decoy method of taking birds which is used in comparison in Ecclesiasticus:

"As a decoy partridge in a cage,

So is the heart of a proud man.'

The other reference to partridges used to cause commentators much trouble, because the old version read, "As the partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool." That was explained in several different ways, all of which neglected the obvious fact that the eggs of the partridge are splendid food; indeed, no other equals them. I am sorry that I know so well, but when I was a child no one ever heard of bird protection. We instinctively shielded songsters and little helpless creatures, but quail and partridges were very numerous, and we ate both the birds and eggs. When we found a nest, with a long stick we always raked out one egg, and if it had not been brooded yet, we ate those remaining. No other egg I ever tasted nearly equals them. But we did not discover this ourselves. The knowledge of the delicacy of quail eggs came across the sea with our ancestors, and they learned it from the south of Europe, and these lands had it from Africa, the home of the quail. So that passage merely means that a partridge sits on a large nestful of eggs while she deposits them, but she is not always