4.62 BRITISH BIRDS. 
COTURNIX COMMUNIS. 
COMMON QUAIL. 
(PLATE 20.) 
Perdix coturnix, Briss. Orn. i. p. 247 (1760). 
Perdix coturnix major, Briss. Orn, i. p. 251 (1760). 
Tetrao coturnix, Linn, Syst. Nat. i. p. 278 (1766). 
Coturnix communis, Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. et Méthod. i. p. 217 (1790); et auctorum 
plurimorum— Bonaparte, Degland § Gerbe, Dresser, Saunders, &c. 
Coturnix dactylisonans, Meyer, Vig. Liv- und Esthl. p. 167 (1815). 
Coturnix vulgaris, Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 45 (1828). 
Coturnix europeus, Swaims. Classif. B. 11. p. 344 (1837). 
Ortygion coturnix (riss.), Keys. u. Blas. Wirb. Eur. p. xvi (1840). 
Coturnix indicus, Hodgs. Gray’s Zool. Miscel. p. 85 (1844). 
Coturnix vulgaris japonica, Temm. § Schlegel, Fauna Japon. p. 108, pl. 1xi. (1847). 
Coturnix baldami, Brehm, Vogelfang, p. 274 (1855). 
Coturnix leucogenys, Brehm, Nawmannia, p. 288 (1855). 
Coturnix capensis, Licht. fide Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 268 (1870). 
There are few birds whose history has been more intimately associated 
with migration than the Quail, the numbers which cross the Mediter- 
ranean on their way to their winter-quarters in Africa being counted by 
millions instead of by thousands. Nevertheless in the south of England 
and in Ireland * the Quail is a partial resident, though the greater number 
are probably only summer visitors. It breeds throughout the British 
Islands, including the Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys, and Shetland, but is 
nowhere common. 
The Quail is an occasional summer visitor to the Faroes. In Scandi- 
navia and Russia it occurs up to about lat. 64°; there is an example in 
the Museum at Omsk; and in the valley of the Yenesay it has been found 
_ as far north as lat. 61°. Eastwards it is found throughout Dauria, the 
valley of the Amoor, in East Mongolia, China, and Japan. It is a resident 
in the Azores and the Canaries, but is a summer visitor to Central Europe. 
It is found throughout North Africa, Palestine, and Asia Minor; but in 
the basin of the Mediterranean and on the Mediterranean islands it is 
principally known as passing through on migration to its chief winter- 
quarters in South Africa, where it is found in Damara Land, the Cape 
Colony, Natal, and the Transvaal. A few remain to breed and a few remain 
to winter in the basin of the Mediterranean. It is a common summer 
visitor to Persia, Afghanistan, and Turkestan, and winters throughout 
India. It has not occurred in Ceylon, but is a rare winter visitor to Burma. 
Most of the birds breeding in Siberia and the north island of Japan are 
* Mr. Lloyd Patterson informs me that the Quail is gradually becoming extinct in 
Treland. 
