60 GAME BIRDS OF THE PROTECTORATES 
GAME BIRDS OF THE EAST AFRICA AND 
UGANDA PROTECTORATES 
By F. J. Jackson. 
COTURNIX COTURNIX 
Coturnix coturnix, Linn. 
4 Ogil vie- Grant’s Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.’ Vol. XXII, page 
231. ‘ Sharpe’s Hand-List,’ Vol. I, page 31. ‘ Shelley’s Birds of 
Africa,’ Vol. I, page 178. * Reichenow’s Vogel Afrikas,’ Vol. I, 
page 505. 
The common or European Quail is a rare visitor to East 
Africa. In December 1909 and January 1910 there were 
a few in the open grass country on the N’gong road. It is 
much more difficult to flush than Delegorgue’s Quail. 
Male . — Top of the head black, all the feathers tipped with 
brown or reddish-brown, a white or pale buff stripe down the 
middle of the head ; feathers of the mantle sandy or reddish- 
brown, each with a wide buff black-edged shaft-stripe tapering 
to a point, and with a wide black bar or blotch on one or both 
webs. The scapulars and feathers of the back, rump, and 
upper tail-coverts are very similar to the mantle, but the 
ground-colour is generally black with narrow V-shaped trans- 
verse bars of dirty or reddish-white, and the shaft-stripes are 
wider and confined to a line of feathers down each side of the 
spine. Lores and stripe above the eye white ; a reddish or 
blackish- brown band commences behind the upper angle of 
the nostril and passes through the eye and over the ear-coverts ; 
a black or sometimes reddish-black band extends backwards 
to behind the eye from the angle of the gape, a black anchor- 
shaped mark commences on the chin and passes down the 
middle of the throat, the arms curving upwards to the ear- 
coverts. The remaining portions of the head, chin, and 
throat are white, and usually separated from the chest by an 
ill-defined band of black and rust-coloured spots. Chest rufous- 
buff, with white shafts, shading into whitish-buff on the rest 
of the under-parts ; sides and flanks reddish-buff, spotted with 
black, and with wide white black-edged shaft-stripes. Tail- 
feathers black, tipped with whitish and barred with buffi 
