QUAIL 
has been constantly confused with two more or less resident local forms, 
Coturnix africana^ found in South Africa, and the islands off the coast 
both in the Southern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and C. japonica from 
North-eastern Asia, China and Japan. The former is a smaller and more 
richly coloured form of C. Coturnix^ but the latter is a distinct and well 
characterized species. 
The male of C. has the chin and throat bright chestnut, usually with 
a well-defined black anchor-shaped mark on the throat, and the mantle, 
chest, and sides of the body are more or less strongly washed with rufous. 
The female differs from that of the common quail chiefly in size, but 
is also more richly coloured on the sides and flanks. Both on the wing 
and when handled C. africana is a strikingly smaller bird than the common 
quail, a fact which is very apparent when both birds are flushed in the 
same field. 
The male of the Japanese quail has the chin and throat dull brick -red, 
devoid of any black markings, and the margins of the flank -feathers 
are mostly rufous, and much less spotted with black. 
The female is readily distinguished from that of the migratory bird 
(figs. 2 and 2a) by having the feathers on the chin and sides of the 
throat elongate and lanceolate (figs. 1 and la), and of much the same 
structure as those found in the bearded partridge {Perdix dauricd) inhabit- 
ing North-eastern and Central Asia. The migratory quail, wandering 
over an immensely wide range, visits the countries inhabited by both 
these resident forms, and unquestionably interbreeds with them, with 
the result that hybrids in intermediate plumage are not uncommon. 
Among European examples of the migratory quail, the males often 
have the throat partially rufous, and are no doubt the offspring of birds 
which have paired with C. africana. 
Equally among Central Asiatic examples of the migratory quail the 
males often show the influence of a union with C. japonica, the hybrids 
having the throat brick-red, or partially so, with a black anchor-shaped 
mark more or less developed. These hybrid forms seem to be mostly 
met with in Eastern Siberia, China and Japan, but specimens have also 
been procured in North-east India and Burma. Indian examples of the 
migratory quail are, generally speaking, very pure bred, and seldom 
show any trace of rufous on the sides of the head and throat, which are 
white, with black markings. Some few, however, have the throat more or 
less rufous, as in the South African form, C. africana, and are probably 
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