462 BRITISH BIRDS. 



COTURNIX COMMUNIS. 



COMMON QUAIL. 



(PLATE 20.) 



Perdix coturnix, Briss. Orn. i. p. 247 (1760). 



Perdix coturnix major, Briss, Orn. i. p. 251 (1760). 



Tetrao coturnix, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 278 (1766). 



Coturnix communis, Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. et Method, i. p. 217 (1790) ; et auctorum 



plurimorum Bonaparte, Degland $ Gerbe, Dresser, Saunders, &c. 

 Coturnix dactylisonans, Meyer, Vog. Liv- und Esthl. p. 167 (1815). 

 Coturnix vulgaris, Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 45 (1828). 

 Coturnix europseus, Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 344 (1837). 

 Ortygion coturnix (Briss.), Keys. u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. Ixvi (1S40). 

 Coturnix indicus, Hodgs. Gray's Zool. Miscel. p. 85 (1844). 



Coturnix vulgaris japonica, Temm. Sf Schkgel, Fauna Japan, p. 103, pi. Ixi. (1847). 

 Coturnix baldami, Brehm, Vogelfang, p. 274 (1855). 

 Coturnix leucogenys, Brelim, Naumannia, p. 288 (1855). 

 Coturnix capensis, Licht.Jide Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 268 (1870). 



There are few birds whose history has been more intimately associated 

 with migration than the Quail, the numbers which cross the Mediter- 

 ranean on their way to their winter-quarters in Africa being counted by 

 millions instead of by thousands. Nevertheless in the south of England 

 and in Ireland * the Quail is a partial resident, though the greater number 

 are probably only summer visitors. It breeds throughout the British 

 Islands, including the Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys, and Shetland, but is 

 nowhere common. 



The Quail is an occasional summer visitor to the Faroes. In Scandi- 

 navia and Russia it occurs up to about lat. 64 ; there is an example in 

 the Museum at Omsk ; and in the valley of the Yenesay it has been found 

 as far north as lat. 61. Eastwards it is found throughout Dauria, the 

 valley of the Amoor, in East Mongolia, China, and Japan. It is a resident 

 in the Azores and the Canaries, but is a summer visitor to Central Europe. 

 It is found throughout North Africa, Palestine, and Asia Minor ; but in 

 the basin of the Mediterranean and on the Mediterranean islands it is 

 principally known as passing through on migration to its chief winter- 

 quarters in South Africa, where it is found in Damara Land, the Cape 

 Colony, Natal, and the Transvaal. A few remain to breed and a few remain 

 to winter in the basin of the Mediterranean. It is a common summer 

 visitor to Persia, Afghanistan, and Turkestan, and winters throughout 

 India. It has not occurred in Ceylon, but is a rare winter visitor to Burma. 

 Most of the birds breeding in Siberia and the north island of Japan are 



* Mr. Lloyd Patterson informs me that the Quail is gradually becoming extinct in 

 Ireland. 



