ii6 Lloyd's natural history. 



Female : A little smaller. 



Eange. — North-east Africa ; Slioa. 



xvL rufpell's francolin. francolinus gutturalts. 



Perdix gutturalis^ Riippell, Neue Wirb. p. 13 (1835). 

 Francolinus gutti/ralis, Riippell, Syst. Uebers, p. 103, pi. 40; 

 Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. p. 151 (1893). 



Adult Male and Female. — Like F. spilolcemus^ but only tht 

 feathers at the edges of the Ihroat are spotted with black; 

 feathers of the chest chestnut, mottled with grey and buff 

 along the shaft ; the breast and under-parts buff, striped with 

 black along the shafts ; and the sides and flanks are heavily 

 blotched with chestnut, and barred with blackish-brown. 



Male: Total length, 12-5 inches; wing, 6'5 ; tail, 2-8; tar- 

 sus, I '4. 



Female: Rather smaller. 



Range. — North-east Africa ; Abyssinia, Bogos, and the Moun- 

 tains of Somali-land. 



Habits.— According to Mr. W. T> Blanford, who had many 

 opportunities of observing the species in Abyssinia, they 

 were generally met with in small coveys during the months 

 of December, January, and February, and subsequently seen 

 in pairs, generally amongst bushes in valleys, and not keeping 

 to the rocky hillsides where Sharpe's Francolin {F. sharpii) 

 was to be found. They were not seen in the pass, but were 

 common around Senafe, and moderately so throughout the 

 highlands. In July and August the flesh was sometimes so 

 rank as to be scarcely eatable, doubtless from their having 

 fed largely on Coleoptera^ which then abounded ; but in thi 

 winter months they were excellent. The call, he says, is very 

 similar to that of the common Enghsh Partridge, to which the 

 plumage also presents some resemblance, so that sportsmen 

 often take them to be the same bird. 



