Old World quail
Encyclopedia
Old World quail is a collective name for several genera
Genera
Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 of mid-sized bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s in the pheasant
Pheasant
Pheasants refer to some members of the Phasianinae subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have...

 family Phasianidae
Phasianidae
The Phasianidae is a family of birds which consists of the pheasants and partridges, including the junglefowl , Old World Quail, francolins, monals and peafowl. The family is a large one, and is occasionally broken up into two subfamilies, the Phasianinae, and the Perdicinae...

. New World quail
New World quail
The New World quails or Odontophorids are small birds only distantly related to the Old World Quails, but named for their similar appearance and habits. The American species are in their own family Odontophoridae, whereas Old World Quail are in the pheasant family Phasianidae...

 are also found in the Galliformes
Galliformes
Galliformes are an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding domestic or game bird, containing turkey, grouse, chicken, New and Old World Quail, ptarmigan, partridge, pheasant, and the Cracidae. Common names are gamefowl or gamebirds, landfowl, gallinaceous birds or galliforms...

, but are not in the same family (Odontophoridae). Buttonquail
Buttonquail
Buttonquail or hemipodes are members of a small family of birds, Turnicidae, which resemble, but are unrelated to, the quails of Phasianidae. They inhabit warm grasslands in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia...

s are not closely related at all, but are named for their similar appearance. They are presently found in the Turnicidae family in the Charadriiformes
Charadriiformes
Charadriiformes is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It includes about 350 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most Charadriiformes live near water and eat invertebrates or other small animals; however, some are pelagic , some occupy deserts and a few are found in thick...

, more closely related to shorebirds, gulls and auks.

The collective noun for a group of quail is bevy or covey.

Taxonomy

Old World quail may refer to the following species of Phasianidae:
  • Genus Coturnix
    Coturnix
    Coturnix is a genus of Old World quail in Phasianidae.- Species list :*Blue Quail, Coturnix adansonii*King Quail, Coturnix chinensis*Rain Quail, Coturnix coromandelica*Harlequin Quail, Coturnix delegorguei*Common Quail, Coturnix coturnix...

    • Common Quail
      Common Quail
      The Common Quail, Coturnix coturnix, is a small bird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It is widespread and is found in parts of Europe, .- Description :It is a small rotund bird, essentially streaked brown with...

      , Coturnix coturnix
    • Japanese Quail
      Japanese Quail
      The Japanese Quail, also known as Coturnix Quail, Coturnix japonica, is a species of Old World Quail found in East Asia. They are a migratory species, breeding in Manchuria, southeastern Siberia, northern Japan, and the Korean Peninsula, and wintering in the south of Japan and southern China. They...

      , Coturnix japonica
    • Stubble Quail
      Stubble Quail
      The Stubble Quail, Coturnix pectoralis is an Australian quail of the family Phasianidae. It has sometimes been considered conspecific with the extinct New Zealand Quail. In this case, the latter species' name would have priority and the Stubble Quail would become Coturnix novaezelandiae pectoralis...

      , Coturnix pectoralis
    • New Zealand Quail
      New Zealand Quail
      The New Zealand Quail , or koreke , has been extinct since 1875. 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...

      , Coturnix novaezelandiae (extinct)
    • Rain Quail
      Rain Quail
      The Rain Quail or Black-breasted Quail is a species of quail found in South Asia.-Distribution:Grassland, cropped fields, and scrubs in the Indus valley of central India, Pakistan, the Gangetic plains, and parts of peninsular continental India. Mostly seen in winter further south.-Description:The...

      , Coturnix coromandelica
    • Harlequin Quail
      Harlequin Quail
      The Harlequin Quail is a species of bird in the Phasianidae family.It is found in Africa.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. . Downloaded on 10 July 2007....

      , Coturnix delegorguei
    • Canary Islands Quail
      Canary Islands Quail
      The Canary Islands Quail once occurred on the islands of El Hierro, La Palma, Tenerife and Fuerteventura . It might also have inhabited Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, but there are no remains found on these islands....

      , Coturnix gomerae (fossil)
    • Brown Quail
      Brown Quail
      The Brown Quail , also known as Swamp Quail, is an Australasian true quail of the family Phasianidae.The Brown Quail is distributed in agricultural areas, wet grasslands, shrublands and freshwater wetlands across much of New Guinea and the Lesser Sunda Islands as well as in northern, eastern,...

      , Coturnix ypsilophora
    • Blue Quail
      Blue Quail
      The Blue Quail or African Blue Quail, is a species of bird in the Phasianidae family.-Geographic Range:The species ranges from Sierra Leone to Ethiopia, and south to Zambia, and eastward to Kenya, and is migratory...

      , Coturnix adansonii
    • King Quail, Coturnix chinensis
  • Genus Anurophasis
    • Snow Mountains Quail, Anurophasis monorthonyx
  • Genus Perdicula
    Perdicula
    Perdicula is a genus of quail.-Species list:* Jungle Bush Quail, * Rock Bush Quail, * Painted Bush Quail, * Manipur Bush Quail,...

    • Jungle Bush Quail
      Jungle Bush Quail
      Very different from the female, the male Jungle Bush Quail has a white moustache, heavily barred white underparts, and variegated wings. The female has a uniform, rich chestnut breast and belly. However, both the male and the female have red and white streaks on the head.The diet of the Jungle Bush...

      , Perdicula asiatica
    • Rock Bush Quail
      Rock Bush Quail
      The Rock Bush Quail is a species of quail found in parts of peninsular India. They are very similar to and overlap in range with Perdicula asiatica. They are found in small coveys and are often detected only suddenly, when they burst out into flight en masse from under vegetation....

      , Perdicula argoondah
    • Painted Bush Quail
      Painted Bush Quail
      The Painted Bush Quail is a species of quail found in the hill forests of India. They move in small coveys on hillsides and are distinguished by their red bills and legs...

      , Perdicula erythrorhyncha
    • Manipur Bush Quail
      Manipur Bush Quail
      The Manipur Bush Quail is a species of quail found in India, inhabiting damp grassland, particularly stands of tall grass, in West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, and Meghalaya....

      , Perdicula manipurensis
  • Genus Ophrysia
    • Himalayan Quail
      Himalayan Quail
      The Himalayan 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...

      , Ophrysia superciliosa (critically endangered/extinct)

Behaviour

Old World Quail are small, plump terrestrial birds. They are seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

 eaters, but will also take insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s 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
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

 and fly for long distances.
Some quail are farmed in large numbers. The Common
Common Quail
The Common Quail, Coturnix coturnix, is a small bird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It is widespread and is found in parts of Europe, .- Description :It is a small rotund bird, essentially streaked brown with...

 and Japanese
Japanese Quail
The Japanese Quail, also known as Coturnix Quail, Coturnix japonica, is a species of Old World Quail found in East Asia. They are a migratory species, breeding in Manchuria, southeastern Siberia, northern Japan, and the Korean Peninsula, and wintering in the south of Japan and southern China. They...

 (or coturnix) quail are both raised for table meat or to produce eggs. They are also readily hunted
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

, 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
Coturnism
Coturnism is an illness featuring muscle tenderness and rhabdomyolysis after consuming quail . The condition was certainly known by the 4th century BC to ancient Greek and subsequently Roman naturalists, physicians and theologians...

".
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