Article about the Common Quail, illustrated with paintings of quails by the artist Manuel Sosa

   CWhen, in mid-May, the rhythmic and penetrating song of the Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix) begins to be heard from the distance of a wheat field, rare will be the person familiar with the countryside who does not stop to delight in its sound for a while. And this happens because, at its core, it is a sign as characteristic of spring as the blossoming of trees or the germination of crops. Its song, a rhythmic uit-uit-uit, has made it a popular animal. This is reflected in the names that country folk in many parts of Europe have given to the quail. The English "wet-my-feet" or "wet-my-lips", the French "paye-tes-dettes" or the Basque "pos-po-lin" are nothing more than onomatopoeic names for the smallest of our phasianids. The Common Quail has a very wide distribution area. It occupies all of Eurasia without exceeding 63 degrees North latitude, also extending through Barbary, Lower Egypt, and Southern Africa - from Kenya to Angola and the Cape, as well as Madagascar. Like all widely distributed species, the Common Quail is differentiated into a certain number of subspecies, among them the famous Japanese Quail, which is industrially exploited on farms. Many are the paintings of quails depicted in the history of art. Here I present two paintings by the artist Manuel Sosa that perfectly illustrate the Common Quail.

  The Common Quail measures about 18 cm in length and has the appearance of a small partridge. Its dorsal part, sandy in color, is longitudinally furrowed by a series of brown and black stripes. On its flanks, it also has light and dark stripes that contrast with the pale tones of its underparts. The male has a reddish breast and black spots on its neck, while the female, with duller colors than the male, differs from it by a dark brown barred breast and a uniform brown neck. There is, therefore, a certain degree of sexual dimorphism. Nevertheless, although its sonorous song can be heard from a considerable distance, quails are rarely seen, except when hunting dogs flush them in the summer, forcing them to fly low for a short distance. The Common Quail could be considered the «traveling relative» of gallinaceous birds, as it has been the only species that, among a group of fundamentally sedentary or at most somewhat transhumant birds, has developed a wide-ranging migratory behavior. However, it is not advisable to generalize on this point, as it has been observed that the migratory instinct affects different subspecies in diverse ways. Thus, the quail populations of the Cape Verde Islands, Azores, Canaries, and Madeira exhibit entirely sedentary behavior. In the image, a painting of quails during the incubation period.

 

The same can happen with North African quails which, facing adverse conditions, flee northwards appearing in countries like Italy.
felt in the abundance and distribution of this bird. 

    Furthermore, exporting countries were asked to prohibit this mass hunting – which in many cases continued during spring – throughout the year.
    Así pues, las codornices que habitan en zonas más norteñas y continentales se ven forzadas a realizar largas migraciones que las alejan de las durísimas condiciones invernales de estas latitudes, mientras que sus parientes más sureñas no se ven tan acosadas por los rigores del clima. Ésta es la razón por la que en las regiones del límite sur de su zona de reproducción -cuen­ca mediterránea-van a coincidir durante la invernada grupos de codornices nativas con otras procedentes de Centroeuro­pa, de las Islas Británicas o de las llanuras rusas. En muchos casos la invernada se ha visto favorecida por modificaciones ecológicas recientes, debidas a la acción del hombre que, como en el caso del sudoeste de la península Ibérica, ha aumentado la protección y el alimento disponible con la implan­tación de amplias zonas de regadío. En cualquier caso, esta invernada cir no la realizan más que pequeñas cantidades de codornices ya que, en su inmensa mayoría, se someten a un agotador viaje que les hará cruzar el Sabara para alcanzar las sabanas tropicales que rodean el borde sur de este desierto.