170 Mr. W. R. Offilvie-Grant on the Genus Cotuvnix. 



'fci 



forms are, as I shall presently show, undoubtedlj the results 

 of interbreeding. 



Goturnix japonica is the resident bird found in Japan and 

 China, and sometimes occurs in N.E. India and Burmah, as 

 there are specimens of this species in the British Museum 

 obtained in Bootan and Karen-nee. The male is charac- 

 terized by the uniform dull brick-red throat without any 

 trace of a black band down the middle, and the female by 

 having the feathers on the chin and sides of the throat elon- 

 gate and lanceolate and of much the same structure as those 

 found in Perdix harhata. 



The typical form of Coturnix coUirnix, commonly known as 

 the migratory Quail of Europe, has the throat pure white, the 

 male having a black anchor-shaped mark down the middle, while 

 in the female the feathers on the sides of tlie throat are short 

 and rounded, never elongate as in the female of G. japonica. 

 This bird ranges over an enormous area, practically the whole 

 of the Ethiopian and Palajarctic Regions, extending in the 

 south to South Africa and in the east to China and Japan. 

 In the islands surrounding the African coast, namely Mauri- 

 tius, Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, the Cape-Verd Islands, 

 the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores, and also in the 

 southern part of Africa south of about 15° S. lat., a resident 

 subspecies of G. coturnix, known as G. capensis, is found, 

 which is distinguished from the typical form by its some- 

 what smaller size and by having the throat of the male bright 

 rufous- chestnut with a black anchor-shaped mark down the 

 middle. In Japan and China the migratory Quail {G. cotur- 

 nix), as already pointed out, inhabits the same tract of 

 country during the breeding-season as G. japonica, and there 

 cannot be the slightest doubt that the two species frequently 

 interbreed, with the result that all sorts of intermediate 

 hybrids are produced. These intermediate plumages are 

 most noticeable among the male hybrids. For instance, some 

 have the dull brick-red throat of G. japonica and the black 

 anchor-shaped mark of G. coturnix, others have only the 

 upper two thirds of the throat dull red and the lower third 

 white, while again a third lot have in addition a black band 

 down the centre of the red part, and all kinds of intermediate 

 stages between these three examples may be found. These 

 hybrids are, so far as I know, generally only found in Mon- 

 golia, China, and Japan, though there is one specimen in the 

 very large series of the British Museum said to have been 

 obtained in Bootan. Equally also, though of secondary 

 importance, G. coturnix interbreeds freely with the red- 

 throated resident race ( G. capensis) in South Africa and the 



