THE QUAILS. l8l 



Adnlt Female. — Diffeis from the male in having no black band 

 douni the middle of the throat, and the chest more or less 

 thickly spotted with brownish-black. From the female of C. 

 japonica it may be readily distinguished by having the feathers 

 on the chin and sides of the throat short and 7'oufided. 



The male described above is a typical example of C. coiiir- 

 nix. As considerable variation is to be found in the colora- 

 tion of the chin and throat and their black markings, it may 

 be as well to give here the substance of the remarks I have 

 already published on this subject. The Migratory Quail has 

 been constantly confused with two more or less resident local 

 forms, C. capeiisis^ioMwdi in South Africa, &:c., and C. japonica^ 

 from Japan and China. The former is probably nothing more 

 than a more richly coloured, rather smaller, resident local race 

 of C. cotnriiix, but the latter is a perfectly distinct and easily 

 characterised species. The migratory bird, wandering over an 

 immensely wide range, visits the countries inhabited by both 

 these forms, and constantly inter-breeds with them, the result 

 being that all sorts of intermediate forms occur. The male of 

 C. japonica has the chin and throat dull brick-red, devoid of 

 any black markings, and the intermediate plumages between 

 this species and the migratory bird are most noticeable among 

 the male hybrids. For instance, some have the dull brick-red 

 throat of C. japonica and the black anchor-shaped mark of C. 

 coturnix ; others have only the upper two-thirds of the throat 

 dull red, and the lower third white; while, again, a third lot 

 have, in addition, a black band down the middle of the red 

 part ; and all kinds of intermediate stages between these three 

 examples may be found. These hybrids are, so far as I know, 

 generally only found in Mongolia, China, and Japan, though 

 there is one skin among the large series in the National Collec- 

 tion said to have been obtained in Bootan, N. India. 



The Migratory Quail also inter-breeds freely with the chest- 

 nut-throated form (C capensis) found in S. Africa and the 

 islands surrounding; the coast, and the results are to be seen in 



