QUAIL. 
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the many male birds from S. Africa and Southern Europe, &c., 
in which the white parts on the sides of the head and throat 
are more or less suffused with the bright rufous-chestnut 
characteristic of the resident bird. 
A curious variety or semi-melanistic form of C. coturnix 
occurs in Spain, in the marshy neighbourhood of Valencia. 
A male in the British Museum has the general colour of the 
plumage black, and the female has the under parts suffused 
with sooty-brown. 
Range. — Africa, Europe, and Asia, except in the south-east 
portion. A summer visitor to Great Britain, some remaining 
in mild winters. 
Habits. — The migratory habits of this species are well known 
to most people, but though the great majority — countless hosts 
of Quail, which may be numbered by millions rather than 
thousands — shift their quarters in September and October, on 
the approach of winter, and move southwards, in many places 
a certain number remain and spend the winter where they have 
bred. For instance, in the South of England and Ireland, and 
in the countries bordering the Mediterranean, a few remain to 
winter, but the bulk of the European summer visitors betake 
themselves by various lines of migration to South Africa, 
whence they return in March and April of the following spring. 
Enormous numbers also winter in India, crossing the Hima- 
layas from Central Asia, while many arrive in Sind and 
Guzerat from the west, moving southwards from Baluchistan, 
Persia, and other northern latitudes. 
The number of migrants varies greatly in different years, 
their movements being largely, if not entirely, regulated by the 
food supply and seasonal conditions of the countries which 
they visit. 
Oiie may form some idea of the vast number to be met 
with in some parts of India, from the following remarks by 
Tickell. He says: — “ In such localities as have been above 
noticed. Quails at times abound to such a degree that shooting 
them is mere slaughter. Where birds get up at every step, dogs 
or beaters are worse than useless, and where the game is so 
plentiful, search after a wounded bird is seldom thought worth 
the trouble. It is usual to be provided with two or three 
15 u 
