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Quail, The

The quail will keep for several days before it is dressed. It may either be drawn before being roasted or, like the woodcock, be roasted without being drawn. As it is rather deficient in flavour, a slice of fat bacon and a vine-leaf are generally tied over it, before putting it to the fire. Quails, Dr. Doran tells us, are variously said either to have recalled Hercules to life or to have cured him of epilepsy. The Romans, however, rather feared them, as tending to cause epileptic fits. Galen thought so; Aristotle took a different view; the Greeks devoured them as readily as though they had Aristotle's special authorisation, but the Romans were only slowly converted to the same way of thinking.