Coturnix

Coturnix is a genus of six extant species and five to eight known extinct species of Old World quail.[1]

Coturnix
Harlequin quail, C. delegorguei
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Subfamily: Perdicinae
Genus: Coturnix
Garsault, 1764
Type species
Tetrao coturnix
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

See text

These species are distributed throughout Eurasia, Africa, Australia, and formerly New Zealand. An extinct radiation of flightless, insular species is known through fossil remains from Macaronesia, which were likely wiped out by human arrival.

The quails are related to the francolins, jungle bush quail, snowcocks and rock partridges, which together with the species of Coturnix make up a clade called Coturnicinae, a subfamily within the family Phasianidae.

Quail of Coturnix live in pairs or small social groups and form larger groups during migration. Not all species migrate, but most are capable of extremely rapid, upward flight to escape from danger. Unlike related genera, Old World quail do not perch in trees. They devote much of their time to scratching and foraging for seeds and invertebrates on the ground. Typical habitats are dense vegetation such as grasslands, bushes alongside rivers and cereal fields. They are predated upon heavily by the diurnal hawks.

Taxonomy

The genus Coturnix was introduced in 1764 by the French naturalist François Alexandre Pierre de Garsault. The type species is the common quail (Coturnix coturnix).[2][3] The genus name is the Latin for the common quail.[4] The genus contains seven species, of which one, the New Zealand quail (Coturnix novaezelandiae), is now extinct but was described from a living specimen.[5]

Species
Extant and recently extinct species
Common and binomial names Image Description Range
Rain quail
(Coturnix coromandelica)
Harlequin quail
(Coturnix delegorguei)
Common quail
(Coturnix coturnix)
Japanese quail
(Coturnix japonica)
†New Zealand quail
(Coturnix novaezelandiae)		 (extinct)
Stubble quail
(Coturnix pectoralis)
Brown quail
(Coturnix ypsilophora)
Late Quaternary fossil species
Common and binomial names Image Description Range
†Canary Islands quail
(Coturnix gomerae)		 El Hierro, La Palma, Tenerife and Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
†Coturnix alabrevis [1] Porto Santo Island, Madeira
†Coturnix centensis [1] Cape Verde
†Coturnix lignorum [1] Madeira Island, Madeira

Fragmentary remains representing three other Coturnix species were also recovered from Macaronesia: Coturnix sp. A from Bugio Island in Madeira, Coturnix sp. B from Santa Maria in the Azores (likely representing another extinct island endemic species) and Coturnix sp. C from Graciosa in the Azores. Due to their fragmentary nature, it is uncertain whether these represented their own species or were synonymous with one of the already-described extinct Coturnix species or the extant common quail (Coturnix coturnix), which also has fossil remains known from Macaronesia and is still present there.[1]

A fossil species from the Late Oligocene - Late Miocene of SW and Central Europe was described as Coturnix gallica. Another, C. donnezani, was widespread in Early Pliocene to Early Pleistocene Europe.[6]

The king quail and blue quail, formerly placed in Coturnix, have been moved to the genus Excalfactoria.

Footnotes
  1. Rando, Juan C.; Alcover, Josep A.; Pieper, Harald; Olson, Storrs L.; Hernández, C. Nayra; López-Jurado, L. Felipe (2020). "Unforeseen diversity of quails (Galliformes: Phasianidae: Coturnix) in oceanic islands provided by the fossil record of Macaronesia". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 188 (4): 1296–1317. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz107.
  2. Garsault, François Alexandre Pierre de (1764). Les figures des plantes et animaux d'usage en medecine, décrits dans la Matiere Medicale de Geoffroy Medecin (in French). Volume 5. Paris: Desprez. Plate 686.
  3. Welter-Schultes, F.W.; Klug, R. (2009). "Nomenclatural consequences resulting from the rediscovery of Les figures des plantes et animaux d'usage en médecine, a rare work published by Garsault in 1764, in the zoological literature". Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. 66 (3): 225-241 [233]. doi:10.21805/bzn.v66i3.a1.
  4. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (2020). "Pheasants, partridges, francolins". IOC World Bird List Version 10.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  6. Mlíkovský (2002)

References
  • Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002a): Early Pleistocene birds of Stránská skála, Czech Republic: 2. Absolon's cave. Sylvia 38: 19-28 [English with Czech abstract]. PDF fulltext
  • The genetic link between the Chinese bamboo partridge (Bambusicola thoracica) and the chicken and junglefowls of the genus Gallus.A Fumihito, T Miyake, M Takada, S Ohno, and N KondoYamashina Institute for Ornithology, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
  • Phylogenetic analysis of gallinaceous birds inferred from mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 gene sequences Wee Hui Kit Publisher: 2002.
  • A Molecular Phylogeny of the Pheasants and Partridges Suggests That These Lineages Are Not Monophyletic R. T. Kimball,* E. L. Braun,*,† P. W. Zwartjes,* T. M. Crowe,‡,§ and J. D. Ligon*
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