18. coTURNix. 231 



specimens of this species in the British Museum obtained in Bootan 

 atifl Karoii-ncc. The male is characterized by the uniform dull 

 l)riik-red throat williout any trace of a black baud down the 

 luiddle, and the female by having the feathers on the chin and 

 sides of the throat elongate and lanceolate and of much the same 

 structure as those found in FerdL' harhata. 



Tlie typical form of Ooturnir coturnic, commonly known as the 

 migratory Quail of Europe, has the throat pure white, the male 

 having a black anchor-shaped mark down the middle, while in the 

 female tlie feathers on the sides of the throat are short and rounded, 

 never elongate as in the female of C.jaimniai. This bird ranges 

 over an enormous area, practically the whole of the Ethiopian and 

 rala>arctic llcgions, extending in the south to South Africa and in 

 tlie east to China and Japan. In the islands surrounding the African 

 coast, namely ilauritius, Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, the 

 Cape-Verd Islands, the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores, and also 

 in the southern part of Africa south of about 15"" S. lat., a resident 

 subspecies of C. coturnLv, known as C. capensis, is found, which is 

 distinguished from the typical form by its somewhat smaller size 

 and by having tlie throat of the male bright rufous-chestnut with a 

 black anchor-shaped mark down the middle. In Japan and China 

 the migratory Quail (C. coturniv), as already pointed out, inhabits the 

 same tract of country during the breeding-season as C. Japonica, and 

 there cannot be the slightest doubt that the two species frcfjuently 

 interbreed, with the result that all sorts of intermediate hybrids 

 are produced. These intermediate plumages 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. cotiinil.i; others have only the upper two-tliirds of the throat 

 dull red and tlie lower third white, while again a third lot have in 

 addition a black band down the centre of the red part, and all 

 kinds of intermediate stages between these three examples may be 

 found. These hyl)rids are, so far as I know, generally only found 

 in ilongolia, China, and Japan, though there is one specimen in 

 tlie very large scries of tlie British Museum said to have been 

 obtained in Bootan. Equally also, though of secondary importance, 

 v. cottd-iu.v interbreeds freely with the red-throated resident race 

 (C. ccqunsis) in South Africa and the islands surrounding tlie 

 coast, and tlie results are seen in the many male birds from South 

 Africa and Southern Europe &c. in which the white parts on the 

 sides of the head and throat are more or less sutiused with the 

 bright rufous-chestnut of the resident bird. 



The females of course are not to be distinguished. I may add 

 tliat Indian examples of C. columi.c are, generally speaking, very 

 l)ure bred and seldom show any trace of rufous on the sides of the 

 head and throat. 



1. Cotumix coturnix. 



La Caille. 7?m«. Orn. i. p^ 247 (1700); Hiif Ilist. Xat. Ois. u. 



p. -W'J, pi. xvi. (1771) ; D'Aubent. PI. Enl. li. pi. 49. uo. 170. 

 Tetrao israelitaruui, llasselq. lieisv Palaest. p. 3ol (17(J2). 



