COTURNIX.
No spur on tarsus; sexes alike; plumage soft; nest on ground; eggs numerous, spotted or blotched.
Coturnix coturnix coturnix (L.). QUAIL. Fr. Caille ; Ger. Wachtel ; Ital. Quaglia ; Swed. Vaktel.
e Above brown, each feather with buff shaft streak, and two bars and tip rufous ; three buff streaks on crown ; throat whitish ; a black patch on chin ; a black band, with rufous band below it, .it base of throat ; breast pale rufous with white streaks, rest of underparts huffy white, flanks rufous, streaked buff. Bill brown, black at tip, pale at base below. Legs and feet light brown. Wing Q generally io8-111, but variable 104-117.
Tarsus 24-26. Bill 9 Chin and throat huffy white, no black band, breast reddish buff, spotted dark brown.
Preeds.—British Isles ; Continental Europe from 65° in Scandinavia and N. Russia, and Go' in Urals, south to Mediterranean and its Islands ; N. Africa (Morocco to Egypt) ;
also N. Asia. Migratory ; winters chiefly in C. and S. Africa, Arabia, and India, but many remain in Mediterranean Countries.
C. coturnix conturbans Hartert. Resembles "C. c. africana" (which is smaller in size, and with face, throat, and chest red in male), but has upper wing coverts and inner secondaries more rusty cinnamon brown and less olivaceous than in "africana." Wing usually too-104.
Resident.—Azores.
C. coturnix confisa Hartert. Larger than "conturbans," upper parts lighter and shaft streaks wider, upper wing coverts darker, not so cinnamon brown ; throat shows more white and middle of abdomen whiter. Wing d 1o6-112, Y (H.).
Resident.—Madeira and Canaries (typical "coturnix" also occurs there on migration).