COMMON QUAIL. 287 



Partridge are sometimes met with, but are by no means 

 common, and generally prove to be birds of the year, probably 

 because birds of peculiar plumage are generally shot down or 

 killed by birds of prey, &c., while still young, being more con- 

 spicuous than their neighbours (Grant, /.r.). 



Nest. — A slight hollow in the ground, roughly lined with a 

 few dry grasses, &c., and sheltered by rough grass, growing 

 crops, or bushes. 



Eggs. — Ten to fifteen, and sometimes as many as twenty, 

 in shape pointed ovals ; uniform pale olive-brown in colour. 

 Average measurements, 1-4 by I'l inch. 



THE QUAILS. GENUS COTURNIX. 



Coturnix, Bonn. Enc. Meth. Intr. pp. Ixxxviii. 216(1790). 

 Type, C. coturnix (Linn.). 



Tail composed of ten or twelve feathers, short, soft, and 

 hidden by the upper tail-coverts ; less than half the length of 

 the wing. First primary flight-feather about equal to the third, 

 the second being generally slightly the longest; in some instances 

 the first three feathers are sub-equal, or the first may even be a 

 trifle the longest. Axillary feathers long and white. Feet with- 

 out spurs. Sexes different in plumaie {Grant). 



THE COMMON QUAIL.* COTURNIX COTURNIX. 



Tetrao coturnix^ Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 278 (1766). 



Coturnix dactylisonans, Macgill. Brit. B. i. p. 233 (1837). 



Coturnix communis^ Bonn. ; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 143, pi. 476 

 (1878); B. O. U. List. Brit. B. p. 143 (1883); Saunders, 

 ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 123 (1883); Seebohm, Hist. 

 Brit. B. ii. p. 462 (1884); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 491 

 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxvii. (1893). 



Coturnix coturnix, Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 231 (1893) ; 

 id. in Allen's Nat. Libr. ix. p. 180 (1895). 

 Adult Male. — General colour above sandy-brown, with pale 



buff shaft-stripes and black bars and markings ; chin and throat 



white, with a black anchor-shaped mark down the middle ; 



* The account of the plumages and habits of the Quail are taken entirely 

 from Mr. Ogilvie Grant's volume on the Game-Birds. 



