The chestnut-backed buttonquail (''Turnix castanotus'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Turnicidae Buttonquail or hemipodes are members of a small family of birds, Turnicidae, which resemble, but are not closely related to, the quails of Phasianidae. They inhabit warm grasslands in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia. There are 18 species in ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Taxonomy

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist who published monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould (illustrator), Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, includ ...

described the species in 1840, from a specimen collected by Benjamin Bynoe, ship's surgeon of , from northwestern Australia, as ''Hemipodius castanotus''. English zoologist George Gray placed it in the genus ''

Turnix Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre (born 1752, - 20 September 1804) was a French naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observatio ...

'' in 1870.

William Robert Ogilvie-Grant William Robert Ogilvie-Grant (25 March 1863 – 26 July 1924) was a Scottish ornithologist. Early life and education Grant was born on 25 March 1863 as the second son of Capt. the Hon. George Henry Essex Ogilvy-Grant, of Easter Elchies, Craigel ...

corrected the name to ''Turnix castanonota'' in 1889. Three subspecies were described by Gregory Mathews, but all are now considered as invalid and merely individual variants.

Etymology

"Chestnut-backed buttonquail" has been designated the official name by the

International Ornithologists' Union The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", ...

(IOC). The species name is derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words ''kastanon'' "chestnut" and ''noton'' "back". Gould called it "chestnut-backed hemipode" in 1848, noting the colonists called it "thick-billed quail". The buttonquail species were generally known as "quail" (hence "chestnut-backed quail" ) until the RAOU promoted the current usage of "buttonquail" in 1978, which was then universally adopted.

Distribution and habitat

Native to northern Australia, the species ranges from the

Dampier Peninsula The Dampier Peninsula is a peninsula located north of Broome, Western Australia, Broome and Roebuck Bay in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia, named after the mariner and explorer William Dampier who visited ...

in Western Australia across to Westmoreland Station in the

Gulf Country The Gulf Country or North West Queensland is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also ca ...

of northwestern Queensland, with possible records from Gregory Downs and Augustus Downs further east. It is also native to Melville Island and

Groote Eylandt Groote Eylandt ( Anindilyakwa: ''Ayangkidarrba''; meaning "island" ) is the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the fourth largest island in Australia. It was named by the explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 and is Dutch for "large island" ...

. It was common around

Borroloola Borroloola () is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the McArthur River, about upstream from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Location Borroloola lies on the traditional country of the Yanyuwa people, on the coastal plain ...

and

McArthur River The McArthur River is a river in the Northern Territory of Australia which flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria at Port McArthur, opposite the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands. The river was named by Ludwig Leichhardt while he explored the a ...

, but not currently. Its existence in Queensland was only confirmed in 2020. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are low grasslands and ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

'' forests and woodland, favouring quartzite-sandstone ridges, plateaus and escarpments, mostly (but not always) in areas that receive over summer rainfall.

Behaviour

The usual sex roles are reversed in the buttonquail genus (''

''), as the larger and more brightly-coloured female mates with multiple male partners and leaves them to incubate the eggs. The female lays a clutch of 1–5 (usually 4) pyriform eggs, which are glossy-white with sparse small dark blotches.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1270026 Birds of the Northern Territory Birds of Queensland Birds of Western Australia Turnix Birds described in 1840 Taxa named by John Gould