Coturnix undefined-A

COTURNIX SP. A

( FIGS 3–5)

Owing to the scarcity of material of this taxon, we refer to it as an unnamed species of Coturnix . The material from the island of Bugio (archipelago of Madeira; Fig. 1) consists of 25 bones (16 in fragmentary condition). All lengths of these bones are within or close to the range of variation of C. gomerae , with the tibiotarsus being the only bone that seems to be slightly longer in the sample from Bugio ( Fig. 4; Table 1). Significant differences were found between femur lengths of Coturnix from Bugio and C. lignorum (U = −2.569; P = 0.01), C. alabrevis (U = −2.354; P = 0.019) and C. coturnix (U = −2.569; P = 0.01), but not with those of C. gomerae (U = −1.443; P = 0.149). The scarcity of material on Bugio does not rule out the possibility that these bones belong to the Canarian quail, but the poor flight ability of this species suggests the existence of an endemic extinct quail on this islet that was convergent with C. gomerae and different from the geographically closer C. lignorum and C. alabrevis ( Fig. 1).

Distribution: Bugio Islet, Desertas Islands, Madeira archipelago, Portugal.