754 PYLSTA ART— QUAIL 



small. All this tends to shew that the distinction expressed by the 

 term Saurur.e, in opiDosition to " OrnUhuree," is based on an 

 erroneous supposition. 



^ff\/*^^ PYLSTAART, from the Dutch, signifying a tail like the shaft 

 of an arrow, and apparently applied originally to the long-tailed 

 Skuas, but now more frequently to the Tropic-birds. 





Q 



QUA-BIRD, so-called from its cry, one of the names given to 

 the North-American Night-HERON, NycUcorax nsevius (page 420). 



QUADRATE BONES form in Birds, as in Reptiles, Amphi- 

 bians and Fishes, the suspensorial apparatus of the mandibles, while 

 in Mammals they are transformed into the tympanic ring and lose 

 their jaw-bearing function. The dorsal or proximal end of the 

 Quadrate invariably articulates with the squamosal, and often with 

 the lateral occipital bone also. In Hesperornis, Ichfhyornis, Batitse 

 and Tinamidse the articulation is formed by a single convexity, 

 Avhile in all other birds it consists of an outer and an inner knob, 

 though the existence of an inner knob, small and sometimes 

 indistinct, is indicated in Hesperornis, Bhea and the Beristero- 

 podes. The ventral or distal end of the Quadrate has two 

 oblong knobs for articulation with the mandible, as well as two 

 small facets, one on the lateral side for the jugal bone, and the 

 other, which is prominent, on the median side for articulation with 

 the posterior end of the pterygoid. From the anterior surface of 

 the shaft of the Quadrate projects the orbital process serving for 

 the attachment of one of the masseter muscles. This process 

 differs greatly in various birds, being large and strong in most 

 aquatic forms, pointed in the Birds-of-Prey and scarcely developed 

 in the Nightjars. Since, as in Lizards and Snakes, the whole 

 Quadrate is movable, protrusion of its distal end helps, by means 

 of the jugal bone, to raise the upper jaw (c/. Skull). That 

 the general shape of the Quadrate can be advantageously used for 

 taxonomic purposes has been shewn by the excellent figures of Miss 

 M. Walker {Stud. Mus. Dundee, 1888). 



QUAIL (Old Scottish Qmilzie, Old French Quaille, Mod. French 

 Caille, Italian Quaglia, Low Latin Quaquila, Dutch Kwakkel and 

 Kwartel, German JVachtel, Danish Vagtel), a very well-known bird 

 throughout almost all countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, — in 

 modern ornithology the Coturnix communis or C. dadylisonans. 



