COTURNIX CAPENSIS. 



CAPE QUAIL; 



(Plate 32.) 



Coturnix capensis, Lichtenstein, vide Gray, Hand-List of Birds, ii, 

 p. 268 (1870) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxii, p. 237 

 (1893) ; Woodward, Natal Birds, p. 164 (1899). 



Coturnix coturnix, SharjDe's ed. Layard Birds of S. Afr., pp. 603, 854 

 (1875-84.) 



Coturnix communis, Nicolls & Eglington, Sportsman in S. Afr., p. 106 

 (1892); Sclater, Ann. S. Afr. Mus., m, p. 354 (1905); Sclater 

 and Stark, Birds of S. Afr., p. 35, iv, p. 221 (1906). 



Coturnix coturnix africana, Reichenow, Vogel Afrikas, i, p. 506 (1900-01). 



Local Names. " Kwartel " of the Dutch ; " Isagwityi " of the 

 Amaxosa (Stanford) ; " Kue-Kue " of the Basutos (Murray). 



Description. The bird figured is an adult male in breeding plumage. 

 The females, young males, and adult males in non-breeding 

 plumage, only differ from the bird figured in having no black 

 throat-patch. Length about Q\ in. 



This Quail only differs from the European species {G. communis) 

 in having the lores, sides of the head, chin and tlu-oat rufous instead 

 of white, and in being slightly smaller. The true European Quail 

 does not apparently extend its migrations as far south as the 

 Zambesi. 



Distribution. The Cape Quail is found all over South Africa from 

 Cape Town to the Zambesi, and it has been recorded from Nyassa- 

 land, Madagascar, the Comoros, Cape Verde and Canary Islands, 

 Madeira and the Azores. 



The Cape Quail was extremely common near Potchefstroom. 

 The main body of Quail arrived about the end of November 

 and started breeding the following month in exactly the 

 same sort of places as those chosen by the Harlequin Quail 

 which, as far as I can see, has precisely similar habits. 



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