.' In India, about the year 1600, pigeons were much
valued by Akbar Khan; 20,000 birds were carried about with the court."
In most countries, too, the breeding and taming of pigeons has been a
favorite recreation. The constancy of the pigeon has been proverbial
from time immemorial, allusions to which occur in "Winter's Tale" (iv.
3), and in "As You Like It" (iii. 3).

_Quail._ The quail was thought to be an amorous bird, and hence was
metaphorically used to denote people of a loose character.[305] In this
sense it is generally understood in "Troilus and Cressida" (v. 1):
"Here's Agamemnon, an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails."
Mr. Harting,[306] however, thinks that the passage just quoted refers to
the practice formerly prevalent of keeping quails, and making them fight
like game-cocks. The context of the passage would seem to sanction the
former meaning. Quail fighting[307] is spoken of in "Antony and
Cleopatra" (ii. 3), where Antony, speaking of the superiority of Caesar's
fortunes to his own, says:

"if we draw lots, he speeds;
His cocks do win the battle still of mine,
When it is all to nought; and his quails ever
Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds."

[305] Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 704;
Halliwell-Phillipps's "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," 1866, p.
398; Dyce's "Glossary," p. 345; Singer's "Shakespeare," vol.
vii. p. 264.

[306] "Ornithology of Shakespeare," p. 218.

[307] Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, pp. 19, 97, 677;
Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. pp. 59, 60.

It appears that cocks as well as quails were sometimes made to fight
within a broad hoop--hence the term _inhoop'd_--to keep them from quitting
each other. Quail-fights were well known among the ancients, and
especially at Athens.[308] Julius Pollux relates that a circle was made,
in which the birds were placed, and he whose quail was driven out of
this circle lost the stake, which was sometimes money, and occasionally
the quails themselves. Another practice was to produce one of these
birds, which being first smitten with the middle finger, a feather was
then plucked from its head. If the quail bore this operation without
flinching, his master gained the stake, but lost it if he ran away. Some
doubt exists as to whether quail-fighting prevailed in the time of
Shakespeare. At the present day[309] the Sumatrans practise these quail
combats, and this pastime is comm