An extinct radiation of flightless, insular species is known through fossil remains from Macaronesia, which were likely wiped out by human arrival.

Typical habitats are dense vegetation such as grasslands, bushes alongside rivers and cereal fields.

The genus Coturnix was introduced in 1764 by the French naturalist François Alexandre Pierre de Garsault.

[4] The genus contains six species, of which one, the New Zealand quail (Coturnix novaezelandiae), is now extinct but was described from a living specimen.

B from Santa Maria in the Azores (likely representing another extinct island endemic species) and Coturnix sp.