2S8 
allen’s naturalist’s i.ibrary. 
chest rufous-buff, with pale shafts ; rest of under-parts paler. 
Total length, 6-7 inches ; wing, 4-2 ; tail, i'5 ; tarsus, I'o. 
Adult Female. — Differs from the male in having no black band 
down the middle of the throat, and the chest more or less 
thickly spotted with brownish-black. From the female of C. 
japonica it may be readily distinguished by having the feathers 
on the chin and sides of the throat short and rounded. 
The male described above is a typical e.xample of C. coturnix. 
As considerable variation is to be found in the coloration of 
the chin and throat, and their black markings, it may be 
as well to give here the substance of the remarks I have 
published on this subject. The Migratory Quail* has been 
constantly confused with two more or less resident local forms, 
C. capensis, found in South Africa, &c., and C. japonica, from 
Japan and China. The former is probably nothing more than 
a more richly coloured, rather smaller, resident local race of 
C. coturnix, but the latter is a perfectly distinct and easily 
characterised species. The migratory bird, wandering over an 
immensely wide range, visits the countries inhabitated by both 
these forms, and constantly inter-breeds with them, the result 
being that all sorts of intermediate forms occur. The male of 
C. japonica has the chin and throat dull brick-red, devoid of 
any black markings, and the intermediate plumages between 
this species and the migratory birds are most noticeable among 
the male hybrids. For instance, some have the dull brick-red 
throat of C. japonica, and the black, anchor-shaped mark of C. 
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 middle 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 met with in Mongolia, China, and Japan, though 
there is one skin among the large series in the National Collec- 
tion said to have been obtained in Bootan, N. India. 
The Migratory Quail also inter breeds freely with the chest- 
nut-throated form (C. capensis) found in S. Africa and the 
islands surrounding the coast, and the results are to be seen in 
* Mr. Grant calls C. coturnix the Migratory Quail to distinguish it 
from the non-migratory species, C. capensis. 
