Notes on the chromosomes of the Harlequin Quail, Coturnix d. delegorguei

Abstract

Coturnix d. delegorguei is, a species of the quail occurring in south-eastern Africa, imported to the United States, being close to the Japanese form, Coturnix coturnix japonica. Dr. S. Makino, Hokkaido University, fixed some embryonal gonads of C. d. delegorguei in California, U. S. A., and kindly placed them at the authors' disposal to investigate the chromosomes. The authors wish to express their thanks to Dr. Sajiro Makino for his kindness in supplying the material and for his helpful advice. Further the authors' cordial thanks are due to the kind supports given by Dr. Jean Delacour, director of County Museum, Los Angeles.
The chromosomes were investigated in the embryonic testes. The spermatogonial metaphase shows 78 chromosomes in _??_ 2n. Morphologically the chromosomes show a distinct demarkation into a macro- and micro-group. The macro-chromosome group comprises 8 pairs, 16 in number. They are represented by aV+bV+cR+dJ+ev+fr+gr+hr. The micro-chromo-somes are 62 in number, varying in shape from short rods to spherulus.
The chromosome of the Japanese Quail, Coturnix c. japonica were studied by Oguma (1938) and revised by Yamashina (1951). The comparison of the chromosomes between the Japanese Quail and the Harlequin Quail revealed that there is an agreement not only in the number of chromosomes but also in their morphological characters, though the length of the largest rod-shaped chromosomes varies in these two species.
It is also noticeable that the karyotypes of these two species of Coturnix and the Chinese bamboo-pheasant (Bambusicola thoracica) are similar to the karyotype of the genus Gallus as Yamashina (1951) has already pointed out.