766 REMARKS ON JAPANESE QUAILS STEJNEGER. 



It is evidently in order to meet tlie objeetiou tliat rufous-throated 

 males are often found in Europe that he makes the following remark: 

 "Equally also, thouiih of secondary importance, C. coturnix inter- 

 breeds freely with tlie red-throated resident race {C. cfqjensis)* in South 

 Africa and the islands surrounding the coast, aud the results are seen 

 in the many male birds from South Africa and Southern Europe, etc, 

 in which the white parts on the sides of tlie head and throat are more 

 or less sutfused with the bright rufous chestnut of the resident bird." 



But this is hardly more than a postulate, and it is, in fact, some- 

 what difficult to see how such a hybridization can take place between 

 a resident species and a subspecies (aud he calls them only "races"'), 

 the results to be found both among the residents and the migrants, 

 The facts are that these so-called intermediates between C. capensis 

 and C. cottirnix are uot only found in South Africa and Southern Eu- 

 rope, but that they are quite common in Central Europe, as evidenced 

 by the detailed description of the throat color and markings by Nau- 

 mann (Naturg. Yog. Deutschl., vi, 1833, pp. 578, 579, and particularly 

 pp. 580-581). From his remarks it will be seen ttat the male quails in 

 Germany vary as much and almost in the same way as the Japanese 

 and Chinese birds described by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, and by him asserted 

 to be hybrids. 



Looking over my material I find nothing in it to contradict the sup- 

 position that the color and markings of the throat of the male Japanese 

 bird is subject to as much individual variation as in the German bird, 

 and I can see no reason for regarding these various plumages as '• inter- 

 mediate stages" or "hybrids." I think such a view also effectually 

 disposes of the somewhat curious peculiarity that "these intermediate 

 plumages are most noticeable among the male hybrids." 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant does not mention any specimens in which the sup- 

 posed hybridism is expressed in an intermediate state of the eulongated 

 throat feathers. On the other hand, in the males he regards the pres- 

 ence of these specialized feathers as the sign of youth, in support of 

 which he mentions the case of " a rather more mature male" in which 

 "owe side of the throat has lost the immature elongate feathers like those 

 of the female and assumed the short, rounded, dull rufous feathers 

 characteristic of the male adult," but all other data which would make 

 it profitable to discuss the case are wanting. 



I now turn to the material before me. 



(1) U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 95980; S ad. ; collected by Blakiston at Sap- 

 poro, Yezo, May, 11, 1877. In coloration this specimen is exactly like 

 the front figure of Fauna Jap. Av., pi. Ixi, with the exception that the 

 l)osterior half of the sui)erciliary stripe is white and the anterior half 

 spotted with wliite; tlic jlank feathers are less marked with blackish; 

 throat feathers, both in the middle and on the sides, short aud rounded. 



*I AvoTild suggest that the proper name of this subspecies is Coturnix coturnix afri- 

 can<t (Schlegcl) (see Fauna Jap. Avcs, p. 103). There is no reference to this name 

 in Mr. Ogilvic-Grant's synonymy. 



