Quails venture out of the woods.

January 17.

Henry Shattuck tells me that the quails come almost every day and get some saba beans within two or three rods of his house, some which he neglected to gather.

Probably the deep snow drives them to it.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, January 17, 1856

See January 3, 1869 ("Quails are very rare here");  January 5, 1860 ("I see where the quails have run along the roadside, and can count the number of the bevy better than if I saw them."); January 10, 1854 ("The sportsmen chose the late thaw to go after quails . They come out at such times to pick the horse-dung in the roads, and can be traced thence to their haunts."); February 6, 1857 ("One who has seen them tells me that a covey of thirteen quails daily visits Hayden's yard and barn, where he feeds them and can almost put his hands on them."); February 7, 1857 ("It seems in severe winters the quails venture out of the woods and join the poultry of the farmer's yard")