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We explore the episode of the Quail in the wilderness and the aggadic interpretations.
Rav Chanin bar Rava teaches that there are four separate birds called slav.We cannot identify each of these birds with certainty, but it appears that they are all members of the pheasant family of birds, which are similar to chickens.The birds mentioned in the Gemara are variously identified as Alectoris, Francolinus, Ammoperdix and Phasianus, all of which have similar body structures and make up a natural family. The pheasant (Phasianus) is raised as poultry in many places. Standard quail – Coturnix coturnix – is the smallest of the birds related to the chicken.
"It is well known that the quail, known to ornithologists as Coturnix coturnix, migrates in huge flocks from Europe to CentralAfrica in the autumn and returns in the spring. A short-tailed game bird of the pheasant family, it flies rapidly at very low altitudes. Due to the long distance involved, the migration is carried out in stages.
The small quails twice each year land exhausted on the Mediterranean shore, where they can easily be captured by hand and by nets in great quantity.
Their flesh and eggs are said to be delicious, and to this day they are a prized food among the local population and are exported as a delicacy to Europe.
The season of the year in which the Israelites encountered the quails fits in precisely with the bird's migratory pattern." (Nahum Sarna, Exploring Exodus pg. 119)