VOCAL COMMUNICATION IN EUROPEAN QUAIL - COMPARISON WITH JAPANESE-QUAIL

The vocal communication repertoire of European quail (Coturnix coturni x coturnix) was established by recording birds during the main stages of their biological cycle, in the field or in the laboratory. Twenty-f our calls were described and divided into 4 groups depending on the fu nctional aspect of their occurrence. The large number of quail vocaliz ations reveals a high degree of social organization with important pos sibilities for interindividual adjustement during interattractive or a gonistic behaviour or pair formation. Comparisons with Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) show an almost total overlap of the the 2 repertoires. The main difference lies in the presence of two dictinct forms of sexual song in European quail. Crows from hybrid males revea l hidden homologies between these songs and could indicate genetic pol lution.