COMMON QUAIL. 127 



it is termed by sportsmen the " Grey " Quail, to distinguish 

 it from its smaller congener the Black-breasted or " Rain " 

 Quail, C. coromauddica. A few nest in the Northern and 

 North-western Provinces, but the majority leave on the 

 approach of the hot weather. Its occurrence in Ceylon is 

 suspected but not yet proved. On its migrations it was 

 obtained by Severtzoff crossing the Pamir or ''Dome of the 

 World"; Dr. Henderson obtained a specimen alive on 24tli 

 September at an elevation of 13,500 feet, and several were 

 heard by Dr. Scully calling in the fields about Yarkand. In 

 Siberia its northern range is dijfficult to trace, but it certainly 

 extends throughout the temperate regions as far as Dauria ; 

 and thence to Japan. In the latter large numbers are 

 resident, but some authorities consider the Japanese form to 

 be distinct : even the note being said to be different. It 

 resembles the resident Azores bird in being small, and in the 

 male having a rufous throat, without, as a rule, any trace 

 of a black central patch ; moreover, the marbling on the 

 flank-feathers is so extremely bright and defined as to give 

 an appearance of spots. In China, the ordinary form 

 occurs on migration, and it also visits the island of 

 Formosa, in which, however, there is a resident form 

 similar to the Japanese, and even more like the Azores 

 bird. The development of a red throat, well-defined 

 coloration and small size, seem, in fact, to be characteristic 

 of these island forms. Very dark varieties are also fre- 

 quently met with ; a shade of plumage which is probably 

 due to hemp, or some other food similar in its effects,* 



Enormous numbers of Quail are netted on the Continent, 

 especially on the spring migration, and most people must be 



* In 1862 MM. J. Verreaux and 0. des Murs desciibed and figured (Rev. et 

 Mag. de Zool. xiv. p. 226, pi. 11) a new species of the purely Australian genus 

 SijnfECUs obtained in Lombardy, calling it S. lodoisice ! Degland and Gerbe 

 believed in it, but the Reviewer in 'The Ibis ' (1862, p. 380) scouted the idea 

 of the occurrence in Europe of a new species of an Australian genus. In 1868 

 the Editor had an opportunity of examining the specimen in the collection of 

 Count Turati, at Milan, and he considered it to be merely a dark variety of the 

 Common Quail, a view which was subsequently endorsed by high authority, and 

 finally admitted to be con-ect by the late J. Verreaux himself. 



