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First record of Blue Quail Coturnix adansoniifor Swaziland Philip Perry Premiere mention de la Caille bleue Coturnix adansonii pour le Swaziland. Une Caille bleue Coturnix adansonii male a ete capturee et tuee par un chat a Thembelihle, Mbabane, le 5 mars 2006. Ceci constitue la premiere donnee pour le Swaziland de cette espece, qui est devenue rare enAfrique australe. Figure 1.Adultmale Blue Quail Coturnixadansonii, Mbabane, 5 March 2006 (P. Perry) Caillebleue Coturnixadansonii, maleadulte, Mbabane, 5 mars2006 (P. Perry) O n 5 March 2006, at c.06.30 am, my cat rowwhite line from the base ofthe bill to the eye. brought a dead bird to my house, in The legs were bright orange-yellow (Fig. 1). Mbabane’s northern Thembelihle suburb, The illustrations in Sinclair et al. (1993) and Swaziland (26°17’S 31°08’E). Aquickglance sug- Hockey etal. (2003) are somewhat inaccurate as gested thatitwas notone ofthe usual preyspecies theyshow the male as having a partiallybrown or (doves, robin chats, sunbirds), but a quail or but- all-brown head and back, but these are actually tonquail.Thebirdwasprobablycaughtin thearea dark slate blue. The former work also does not belowmyhousewhere there is asmallvalleylead- show the white line from the bill to the eye. The ing to a stream and a small relict pocket ofdamp illustration in Urban etal. (1986) is more accurate montane grassland (altitude c.1,130 m) surround- in these respects. ed by suburban housing and alien trees (pines This record is the first for Swaziland: the Pinussp. and eucalypts Eucalyptussp.). species is not mentioned for the country by Reference to field guides (Sinclair etal. 1993, Hockey et al. (2005), nor does it feature on Hockeyetal. 2003) identified the bird as an adult Swaziland’s most recent checklist, published male Blue Quail Coturnix adansonii. The entire online in January 2006 (Monadjem 2006). Blue bodywas a dark slate blue, with distinctive chest- Quail is a rare summer visitor to southern Africa. nutwing-patches andflanks (which distinguish C. The most recent record for SouthAfrica included adansonii from the Asian Blue-breasted Quail C. in Hockey etal. (2005) is ofa bird found dead in chinensis with which it is sometimes considered Durban in December 1973, but since then amale conspecific). It had a well-defined, broad black was observed in the northern Kruger National anchor-like marking on awhite throat and a nar- Park, near Shingwedzi, on 11 April 2004 (Demey FirstrecordofBlue QuailforSwaziland:Perry BullABCVol13No2(2006)-215 2004). The nearest record of this species to Hockey, P. A. R., Dean, W. R. J. & Ryan, P. G. 2005. Mbabane is a specimen collected in Manhi^a Roberts Birds ofSouthernAfica. Seventh edn. Cape (25°24’S 32°48’E), c.30 km north of Maputo, Town: Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book southern Mozambique (Clancey 1996). Fund. Monadjem, A. 2006. List of the birds of Swaziland. Acknowledgements www.naturalhistorysociety.org.sz/Birds.htm I thankDrAraMonadjem and Ron Demeyfortheir Sinclair, I., Hockey, P.A. R. &Tarboton,W. 1993. Sasol useful comments on a draft ofthis note. BirdsofSouthernAfica. CapeTown: Struik. & Urban, E. K., Fry, C. H. Keith, S. (eds.) 1986. The References BirdsofAfica. Vol. 2. London,UK:AcademicPress. Clancey, P. A. 1996. TheBirdsofSouthernMozambique. PO Box 5141, Mbabane, HI00, Swaziland. E-mail: Westville, KwaZulu-Natal: African Bird Book [email protected] Publishing. Demey, R. 2004. Recent Reports. Bull. ABC 11: Received 18 April 2006; revision accepted 23 April 2006 168-182. 216-BullABCVol13No2(2006) FirstrecordofBlue QuailforSwaziland:Perry