1920.] Birds uf the Canary Islands. 131 



According to Meade-Waklo the Quail rears two or three 

 bevies of young in the year (Ibis, 1893, p. 201), 



Von Thanner was assured that the Quails left the island 

 of Fuerteventura directly after breeding but returned again 

 in the autumn (Orn. Jahrb. 1905. p. 62j. This may refer 

 to C. c. coufha only. 



Whether some of the typical birds remain in the Archi- 

 pelago during the entire winter is not yet known, but I 

 shonld think it highly probable that such is the case, 

 especially as the resident birds {C. c. conjisa) probably 

 interbreed with the migratory, as instanced by birds which 

 I obtained at Firgas in Gran Canaria in June 1913 (Ibis, 

 1914., p. 29.2). 



In dealing with the migrations of the Quail in the 

 Canaries we must bear in mind the fact that the resident 

 form has been greatly confused with the Migratory Quail, 

 and also that local migration of the resident form may take 

 place between the islands and thus add to the confusion. 

 Specimens must be shot and preserved from all the islands 

 at all seasons before we can safely write about the migrations 

 of this species. 



Range. Hartert has recently gone very fully into the 

 question of the races of Coturnix coturnix (Nov. Zool. xxiv. 

 1917, pp. 420-425). He accepts the following for the range 

 of the typical Migratory Quail: "Europe to Yenesey and 

 Lake Baikal, south to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, and 

 Persia, also in small numbers nesting in north-west India, 

 wintering chiefly in northern tropical Africa south of the 

 Sahara (south to Gambia and Abyssinia), in Arabia and 

 India.^' 



It will be a stream of the birds which pass down the west 

 coast of Africa to Gambia, M'hich pass regidarly throagii the 

 Canaries on migration. 



Coturnix coturnix confisa. Quail. 



Coturnix coturnix conjisa Hartert, Nov. Zooi. xxiv. 1917, 

 p. 423— Type locality : Madeira. 

 A Resident subspecies. 



k2 



