COTURNIX. TETRAO. 315 



and appears as a spring visitor only in the eastern half. The 

 number of migrants varies greatly in different years ; occa- 

 sionally great influxes take place as in the years 1870, 1885, 

 1892, and 1903. 



General Distribution. The Quail breeds throughout the 

 greater part of Europe, Asia, and north Africa. In summer 

 it is found as far north as the Faeroes, and in Scandinavia and 

 Russia up to G5 N. latitude, its numbers gradually increasing 

 towards the Mediterranean, and in north Africa. Eastwards 

 across Siberia, south of about 60 N., its range extends to 

 north China and Japan (where it meets and interbreeds with 

 the resident form C- japonica) ; also to Turkestan, Persia, 

 Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and India, where it is scarce. 

 Vast numbers from north and central Asia winter in south 

 China and India, while European birds winter in Africa, 

 probably ranging far south ; also in Madeira, the Canary 

 Islands, and the Azores, where they meet and interbreed with 

 the smaller more rufous resident race C. c. africana. 



Family TETRAONID^E. 



Genus TETRAO Linnceus, Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 159. 

 Type : T. urogallus Linn. 



Tetrao = rfTpawv, a bird mentioned by Athenaeus and Pliny; akin to 

 Tcrpa.%, Sankr. tittiris, Old Norse thidr, Lat. turtur ; perhaps a Persian word. 



Tetrao urogallus. CAPERCAILLIE. 



Tetrao urogallus Linnteus, Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 159 : 



Sweden. 



Tetrao nrogallus Linn. ; B. 0. II. List, 1st ed. 1883, p. 145 ; 

 Oqilvie- Grant, Gat. Birds B. M. xxii. 1893, p. 60 ; Saunders, 

 Manual, 2nd ed. 1899, p. 491. 



Urogallus, from urus = a kind of wild ox, and gallus = a cock. Gesner 

 formed the name from the German Auerhahn, taking Auer as equivalent to 

 Urus, in reference to the bird's size, comparing it to the bovine Aurochs. 



Distribution in the British Islands. A Resident in Scotland 

 since its reintrocluction from Sweden in 1837-8. It has 



