2S8 Allen's naturalist's library. 



chest rufous-buff, with pale shafts ; rest of under-parts paler. 

 Total length, 67 inches ; wing, 4*2 ; tail, 1*5 ; tarsus, i"o. 



Adult Female. — Differs from the male in having no black band 

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

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

 jap07iica it may be readily distinguished by having the feathers 

 on the chin and sides of the throat short and rounded. 



The male described above is a typical example of C. coturnix. 

 As considerable variation is to be found in the coloration of 

 the chin and throat, and their black markings, it may be 

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

 published on this subject. The Migratory Quail* has been 

 constantly confused with two more or less resident local forms, 

 C. capensis, found 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. cotur7iix^ but the latter is a perfectly distinct and easily 

 characterised species. The migratory bird, wandering over an 

 immensely wide range, visits the countries inhabitated by both 

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

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

 C. jap07iica has the chin and throat dull brick-red, devoid of 

 any black markings, and the intermediate plumages between 

 this species and the migratory birds are most noticeable among 

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

 throat of C. japo?tica, 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 i"ar as I know, 

 generally only met with 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 



* Mr. Grant calls C. cottirnix the Migratory Quail to distinguish it 

 from the non-migratory species, C. capensis. 



