COMMON QUAIL. 
287 
Partridge are sometimes met with, but are by no means 
common, and generally prove to be birds of the year, probably 
because birds of peculiar plumage are generally shot down or 
killed by birds of prey, &c., while still young, being more con- 
spicuous than their neighbours (Grant, l.c.'). 
Nest. — A slight hollow in the ground, roughly lined with a 
few dry grasses, &c., and sheltered by rough grass, growdng 
crops, or bushes. 
Egg’S. — Ten to fifteen, and sometimes as many as twenty, 
in shape pointed ovals ; uniform pale olive-brown in colour. 
Average measurements, i‘4 by i‘i inch. 
THE QUAILS. GENUS COTURNIX. 
Coturnix, Bonn. Enc. Mdth. Intr. pp. Ixxxviii. 216(1790). 
Type, C. coturtiix (Linn.). 
Tail composed of ten or twelve feathers, short, soft, and 
hidden by the upper tail-coverts j less than half the length of 
the wing. First primary flight-feather about equal to the third, 
the second being generally slightly the longest ; in some instances 
the first three feathers are sub-equal, or the first may even be a 
trifle the longest. Axillary feathers long and white. Feet with- 
out spurs. Sexes different in plumage (Gra»t). 
THE COMMON QUAIL.* COTUENIX COTURNIX. 
Tetrao coturnix, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 278 (1766). 
Ccturnix dactylisonans, Macgill. Brit. B. i. p. 233 (1837). 
Coturnix cojnmunis, Bonn . ; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 143, pi. 476 
(1878); B. O. U. List. Brit. B. p. 143 (1883); Saunders, 
ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 123 (1883); Seebohm, Hist. 
Brit. B. ii. p. 462 (1884); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 491 
(1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxvii. (1893). 
Coturnix coturnix. Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 231 (1893) ; 
id. in Allen’s Nat. Libr. ix. p. 180 (1895). 
Adult Male. — General colour above sandy-brown, w'ith pale 
buff shaft-stripes and black bars and markings ; chin and throat 
white, with a black anchor-shaped mark down the middle ; 
* The account of the plumages and habits of the Quail are taken entirely 
from Mr. Ogilvie Grant’s volume on the Game-Birds. 
