QUAIL 
COTURNIX COTURNIX 
(Plate XXII) 
Tetrao coturnix, Linn., Syst. Nat., i, p. 278 (1766). 
Coturnix communis, Bonn., Dresser, Birds Europe, vii, p. 143, pi. 476 (1878) ; Hume & 
Marshall, Game Birds Ind., ii, p. 133, pi. (1879) ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, iii, p. 756 (1880) ; 
Saunders, ed. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, iii, p. 123 (1882) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. Birds, ii, p. 462 
(1884); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, pt. xxvi (1893); Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 505 (1899). 
Coturnix dactylisonans, Temm. ; Gould, Birds Europe, iv, pi. 263 (1837). 
Coturnix coturnix, Ogilvie-Grant, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), x, p. 166 (1892) ; id.. Cat. 
Birds Brit. Mus., xxii, p. 231 (1893) ; id.. Handbook Game Birds, i, p. 180 (1895) ; Millais, Nat. 
Hist. Brit. Game Birds, p. 130, pi. (1909). [N.B. The male bird figured is Coturnix africana, 
the South African form.] 
DULT male. — Feathers of the crown black, tipped with 
reddish-brown, a pale whitish-bulf stripe down the 
/ middle of the head, and one above each eye, extending 
M yL from the bill to the neck ; mantle sandy or reddish - 
M brown, each feather with a wide buff black-edged shaft- 
^JL iL. stripe tapering to a point, and a black bar or blotch 
on one or both webs; shoulder -feathers, back, rump and upper tail-coverts 
very similar to the mantle, but the ground-colour is generally blacker, 
with narrow V-shaped bars of rufous -buff, and the buff shaft-stripes are 
wider and confined to a line of feathers down each side of the spine, 
forming a regular pattern. Quills blackish, barred and mottled with buff, 
the primaries on the outer web only. Sides of the head, chin, and throat, 
white; a reddish or brownish band extends from the bill to the ear -coverts, 
and a black anchor -shaped mark extends from the chin down the middle 
of the throat, the arms curving upwards to the ear-coverts. Chest rufous- 
buff, with pale shafts; remainder of the underparts paler; the sides and 
flanks reddish-buff, more or less spotted with black, and with wide white 
black-edged shaft -stripes. Tail-feathers black, barred with buff and 
tipped with whitish. Total length 6*7 inches ; wing 4*2 inches ; tail 
1*5 inch; tarsus 1*0 inch. (Plate XXII.) 
Adult female. — ^Differs from the male in having no black band down the 
middle of the throat, only the arms of the anchor-like mark being some- 
what imperfectly represented, and the chest is more or less thickly spotted 
with black. The plumage of the female does not appear to differ in the 
breeding -season, but is paler and more worn. (Plate XXII.) 
Young males in first plumage resemble the female, but the chest has only 
a few black spots. 
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