754 PYLSTAART—QUAIL 
small. All this tends to shew that the distinction expressed by the 
term SAURURA, in opposition to “-Ornithure,” is based on an 
erroneous supposition. 
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, Nycticorax nevius (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, Ichthyornis, Ratitez 
and Tinamidz the articulation is formed by a single convexity, 
while 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, Rhea and the Peristero- 
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 PrERYGOID. 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 (cf. 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 Quailzie, Old French Quazlle, Mod. French 
Caille, Italian Quaglia, Low Latin Quaquila, Duteh Kwakkel and 
Kwartel, German /Vachtel, Danish Vagtel), a very well-known bird 
throughout almost all countries of Europe, Asia and Africa,—in 
modern ornithology the Coturnia communis or C, dactylisonans, 
