Quail Coturnix coturnix

Charles Smith-Jones looks at this elusive migratory bird that is no longer legal quarry in the UK but was much desired by Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife

We don’t shoot quail in the UK and the only reason that this elusive little bird appears in this series is that it is classified as a gamebird, even though it has no open season. Before the modern game laws, our forefathers might have added the odd one or two to the bag when walking-up the stubble for an early partridge, but by the time the game season was in full swing the quail would have left our shores along with the swallows, destined for Africa where they spend the winter before returning in April. The quail is the only truly migratory gamebird and, like the swallow, it is very much a bird of the late spring and summer in Britain. Those encountered in Europe, more properly known as the…

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Sporting Gun (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2021

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