NOTTTATEB ZoOLOOICAE XXIV. 1917. 421 



known, a pairing of European and African Quail cannot take place, unles.s one 

 surmises that the former make a circular flight round the Atlantic Islands 

 (Madeira, Azores, Canaries), where close allies of C. c. africana ( = capensis) are 

 found ; but even then there would be no .sensible explanation how the results 

 of their wickedness could reach such extraordinarily different places as Cape 

 Colony, Gibraltar, England, Austria, Hungary, Greece, and India : all places 

 where, according to Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, "intermediate forms," i.e. hybrids 

 (of. his explanations on p. 231, and the labels in the British Museum), 

 are found. The fact is, that the supposed hybrid specimens from South Africa 

 are less typical C. c. africana, and those from Europe red-faced varieties of the 

 type of the so-called Coturnix baldami and others ; mostly the former can be 

 distinguished by their shorter wings, though otherwise, in coloration, hght 

 varieties of C. c. africana and dark ones of C. c. coturnix are sometimes difficult 

 to distinguish. 



The European C. c. coturnix, besides nesting in Europe and North Africa, 

 extends in Asia as far east as Lake BaUial, but not farther eastwards. Mr. 

 Ogilvie-Grant said that it occurred in Asia "except the south-west corner, Siam, 

 etc.," but he evidently meant south-east corner ; he admits skins from China 

 and Japan as C. c. coturnix, s.nA in the same places ever so many hybrids between 

 the latter and japonica. This is a mistake. On p. 230 he gave one to under- 

 stand that he was going to explain the changes of plumage in the C. c. japonica, 

 but he has not done so, and evidently himself misunderstood them. He accepts 

 that the adult male — apparently at all seasons — has the " sides of the head, 

 chin, and throat uniform dull brick-red, without a trace of the anchor-shaped 

 mark," while adult females and young males have the throat-feathers elongate 

 and lanceolate. Now the moults of the Quails are very interesting : there is 

 a complete moult of the entire plumage after the breeding season, but there 

 is also another, partial, moult in the spring ; this latter moult is apparently 

 restricted to the head, neck, back, and chest, and it seems to be very irregular, 

 some signs of moult being found in winter, while even in May Mr. Witherby 

 shot moulting males in South-west Persia. In the European Quail this moult 

 produces no evident difference in plumage at all, while in the eastern race, C. c. 

 japonica, it produces a very marked change ! The throat-feathers are elongate 

 and lanceolate in winter, and in winter only. Every winter bird with trust- 

 worthy date, both male and female, has these elongate and lanceolate feathers, 

 though they vary in length and pointedness, and every spring-bird has rounded, 

 shorter, " ordinary " throat-feathers. Moreover, there are in the British 

 Museum and in the Rothschild collection males which clearly moult from the 

 hackle-throated plumage into the round-feathered, rufous-throated one. These 

 birds, according to their state of plumage, are fully adult, and not at all juvenile 

 individuals. In the adult males in spring the whole throat is dull brick-red, 

 but the black anchor-shaped mark is sometimes indicated or even well developed. 

 In the winter the male has the throat white, mostly with a more or less deve- 

 loped black mark along the middle ; the female has no black mark on the 

 throat, and differs, of course, from the male in having the crop and chest more 

 or less spotted, Uke females of the other subspecies of Quails. The adult female 

 in spring and summer is so much like that of C. c. coturnix that I am unable to 

 give constant distinguishing -characters, though C. c. japonica is generally 

 smaller : \vings, <J 98-102, ? 100-106, against S 104-115, ? 106-117 mm. in C. c. 



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