Old World quail

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Old World Quail
Brown Quail.jpg
Brown quail, Synoicus ypsilophorus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Class:
Order:
Family:
Subfamily:
Tribe:
Genera

Synoicus
Coturnix
Perdicula
Ophrysia (possibly extinct)

Contents

A quail trap from Malaysia, also known as the jebak puyuh: A female quail was placed in the woven container behind the netting. As the female called out, a male mate would approach and then the trap would fall on him. Quails are now rarely found in the wild in Malaysia, so such devices now serve as decoration. The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis - Quail trap.jpg
A quail trap from Malaysia, also known as the jebak puyuh: A female quail was placed in the woven container behind the netting. As the female called out, a male mate would approach and then the trap would fall on him. Quails are now rarely found in the wild in Malaysia, so such devices now serve as decoration.

Old World quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds in the tribe Coturnicini of the pheasant family Phasianidae. Although all species commonly referred to as "Old World quail" are in the same tribe, they are paraphyletic with respect to the other members of the tribe, such as Alectoris, Tetraogallus , Ammoperdix , Margaroperdix , and Pternistis . [2]

New World quail are also found in the Galliformes, but are not in the same family (Odontophoridae). Buttonquails are not closely related at all, but are named for their similar appearance. [3] They are presently placed in the family Turnicidae of the Charadriiformes, classified as shorebirds.

The collective noun for a group of quail is flock , bevy or covey. [4]

Taxonomy

Old World quail may refer to the following species of Coturnicini:

Behaviour

Old World quail are small, plump terrestrial birds. They are seed eaters, but will also take insects and similar small prey. They nest on the ground and are capable of short, rapid bursts of flight. Some species, such as the Japanese and common quail, are migratory and fly for long distances. [5] [6] Some quail are farmed in large numbers. The common and Japanese (or coturnix) quail are both raised for table meat or to produce eggs. They are also readily hunted, often artificially stocked on game farms or to supplement wild populations.

Migrating common quail are known to eat some poisonous seeds with no apparent ill effects but store the poison in their body fat, poisoning people who subsequently eat these birds; this condition is known as "coturnism". [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quail</span> Index of animals with the same common name

Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galliformes</span> Order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds

Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often reared by humans for their meat and eggs, or hunted as game birds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phasianidae</span> Family of birds

The Phasianidae are a family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl. The family includes many of the most popular gamebirds. The family is a large one and includes 185 species divided into 54 genera. It was formerly broken up into two subfamilies, the Phasianinae and the Perdicinae. However, this treatment is now known to be paraphyletic and polyphyletic, respectively, and more recent evidence supports breaking it up into two subfamilies: Rollulinae and Phasianinae, with the latter containing multiple tribes within two clades. The New World quail (Odontophoridae) and guineafowl (Numididae) were formerly sometimes included in this family, but are now typically placed in families of their own; conversely, grouse and turkeys, formerly often treated as distinct families, are now known to be deeply nested within Phasianidae, so they are now included in the present family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common quail</span> Species of bird

The common quail, or European quail, is a small ground-nesting game bird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It is mainly migratory, breeding in the western Palearctic and wintering in Africa and southern India.

<i>Coturnix</i> Genus of birds

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himalayan quail</span> Species of bird

The Himalayan quail or mountain quail, is a medium-sized quail belonging to the pheasant family. It was last reported in 1876 and is feared extinct. This species was known from only 2 locations in the western Himalayas in Uttarakhand, north-west India. The last verifiable record was in 1876 near the hill station of Mussoorie.

<i>Alectoris</i> Genus of birds

Alectoris is a genus of partridges in the family Phasianidae, closely related to Old World quail, snowcocks (Tetraogallus), partridge-francolins (Pternistis), bush quail (Perdicula), and sand and see-see partridges (Ammoperdix). Members of the genus are known collectively as rock partridges. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek: αλέκτωρ, romanized: alektoris, meaning "chicken" or "farmyard fowl".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King quail</span> Species of bird

The king quail, also known as the blue-breasted quail, Asian blue quail, Chinese painted quail, or Chung-Chi, is a species of Old World quail in the family Phasianidae. This species is the smallest "true quail", ranging in the wild from Southern China, South and south-eastern Asia to Oceania, up to South-eastern Australia with 9 different sub-species. A failed attempt was made to introduce this species to New Zealand by the Otago Acclimatisation Society in the late 1890s. It is quite common in aviculture worldwide, where it is sometimes misleadingly known as the "button quail", which is the name of an only very distantly related family of birds, the buttonquails.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jungle bush quail</span> Species of bird from the Indian subcontinent

The jungle bush quail is a species of quail in the family Phasianidae. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, where it is found in peninsular India and Sri Lanka. It has also been reported from Nepal but has not been seen there since the 19th century, and an introduced population exists on the island of Réunion. A small species of quail 15–18 cm (5.9–7.1 in) long and weighing 57–82 g (2.0–2.9 oz), it shows significant sexual dimorphism. Males have brown upperparts with blackish and buff marking and whitish underparts with black barring. The face is mainly dark reddish-brown, with brown ear-coverts, a buffy-white moustachial stripe, and the supercilium turning whitish towards the back of the neck. Females have a similar pattern, but with pinkish-brown underparts, more uniform wings, and duller moustachial stripes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quail as food</span>

Both Old World and New World quail include edible species. The common quail used to be much favoured in French cooking, but quail for the table are now more likely to be domesticated Japanese quail. The common quail is also part of Polish cuisine, Maltese cuisine, Portuguese cuisine, Italian cuisine, Mexican cuisine, and Indian cuisine. Quail are commonly eaten complete with the bones, since these are easily chewed and the small size of the bird makes it inconvenient to remove them.

<i>Perdicula</i> Genus of birds

Perdicula is a small genus of quail in the family Phasianidae, containing four species that are collectively known as the bush quails.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown quail</span> Species of bird

The brown quail, also known as the swamp quail, silver quail and Tasmanian quail, is an Australasian true quail of the family Phasianidae. It is a small, ground-dwelling bird and is native to mainland Australia, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea and has been introduced to New Zealand and Fiji. Widespread and common throughout its large range, the brown quail is evaluated as being of "least concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Zealand quail</span> Extinct species of bird

The New Zealand quail, or koreke in Māori, is an extinct quail species endemic to New Zealand. The male and female were similar, except the female was lighter. The first scientist to describe it was Sir Joseph Banks when he visited New Zealand on James Cook's first voyage. Terrestrial and temperate, this species inhabited lowland tussock grassland and open fernlands. The first specimen to be obtained by a European was collected in 1827 by Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard on Dumont D'Urville's voyage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese quail</span> Species of bird

The Japanese quail, also known as the coturnix quail, is a species of Old World quail found in East Asia. First considered a subspecies of the common quail, it is now considered as a separate species. The Japanese quail has played an active role in the lives of humanity since the 12th century, and continues to play major roles in industry and scientific research. Where it is found, the species is abundant across most of its range. Currently, there are a few true breeding mutations of the Japanese quail. The breeds from the United States are Texas A&M, English white, golden range, red range, Italian, Manchurian, Tibetan, rosetta, scarlett, roux dilute and golden tuxedo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue quail</span> Species of bird

The blue quail or African blue quail is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found in Sub-Saharan Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coturnism</span> Muscle tenderness after eating quail

Coturnism is an illness featuring muscle tenderness and rhabdomyolysis after consuming quail that have fed on poisonous plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perdicinae</span> Subfamily of birds

Perdicinae is a polyphyletic former subfamily of birds in the pheasant family, Phasianidae, regrouping the partridges, Old World quails, and francolins. Although this subfamily was considered monophyletic and separated from the pheasants, tragopans, junglefowls, and peafowls (Phasianinae) till the early 1990s, molecular phylogenies have shown that these two subfamilies actually constitute only one lineage. For example, some partridges are more closely affiliated to pheasants, whereas Old World quails and partridges from the Alectoris genus are closer to junglefowls. Due to this, the subfamily Perdicinae is no longer recognized by the International Ornithological Congress, with the species being split among 3 subfamilies.

<i>Pternistis</i> Genus of birds

Pternistis is a genus of galliform birds formerly classified in the spurfowl group of the partridge subfamily of the pheasant family. They are described as "partridge-francolins" in literature establishing their phylogenetic placement outside the monophyletic assemblage of true spurfowls. All species are endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa, excepted the double-spurred spurfowl. They are commonly known as spurfowls or francolins, but are closely related to jungle bush quail, Alectoris rock partridges, and Coturnix quail. The species are strictly monogamous, remaining mated indefinitely. They procure most of their food by digging. Spurfowls subsist almost entirely on roots, beans of leguminous shrubs and trees, tubers, and seeds, and feasting opportunistically on termites, ants, locusts, flowers, and fruit. Important predators are jackals, caracals, servals, and birds of prey, as well as herons and marabou storks.

<i>Synoicus</i> Genus of birds

Synoicus is a genus of 4 species of Old World quail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coturnicini</span>

Coturnicini is a tribe of birds in the subfamily Phasianinae. It contains the Old World quail, snowcocks, and African spurfowl, among others. Members of this tribe have a wide range throughout Africa, Eurasia, and Australasia. This tribe contains the only members of Pavoninae native to continental Europe, as well as the only members of Phasianidae as a whole native to Australasia. This grouping was supported by a 2021 phylogenetic analysis of Galliformes, and has been accepted by the International Ornithological Congress. The tribe name is accepted by the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World.

References

  1. Phillips, Lori Byrd (March 8, 2012). "Wikipedia Image of the Week #2". Wikipedia in Residence. Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  2. "Galliformes". bird-phylogeny (in German). Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  3. "Quail Information, including listing of species and photos". Beauty Of Birds.
  4. USGS – Animal Congregations, or What Do You Call a Group Archived 2015-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Coturnix japonica (Japanese quail)". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  6. "Coturnix coturnix (common quail)". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  7. Coturnism: Human Poisoning By European Migratory Quail Journal of Cultural Geography Volume 7, Issue 2, 1987, Pages 51 – 65 Authors: David C. Lewisa; Elizabeth Metallinos-Katzarasb; Louis E. Grivettic doi : 10.1080/08873638709478507