238 FRANCOLIN* 



During the breeding season the male bird, morning 

 and evening, utters a sonorous note, 'tre, trc, tre;' 

 and there is an adage in Sicily, among the peasantry, 

 that this cry indicates its value to be three taris, a 

 sum equivalent to one franc and twenty-five centimes. 



In India the Francolin or Black Partridge is very 

 common. Captain Irby ("Ibis," vol. iii, p. 236,) says: 

 — "This handsome Partridge is found in great numbers 

 in all grass jungles near water, and is particularly 

 numerous on the banks of the Gogra, Choka, and 

 other large rivers. Good sport is to be had with them 

 in November, in the liulde or turmeric fields. This 

 Partridge was common in Kumaon in April, May, and 

 June. Its call was to be heard wherever there was 

 any cultivation." He further adds, when describing 

 the Grey Partridge, ( Perdix ponticeriana,) that its 

 flesh is dry, and scarcely eatable, being a degree worse 

 than that of the Black Partridge, (the Francolin.) 



M. Malherbe, however, says that in Sicily it is "un 

 gibier exquis," and that it is so much sought after at 

 all seasons, that it is becoming more and more rare. 

 Captain Irby says that in India the Francolin will 

 take refuge in trees when flushed, but rarely. 



The Francolin nests on the ground underneath some 

 bush, where it scrapes a hollow, which it fills with 

 dried leaves and stalks, and in this nest it deposits 

 from ten to fourteen eggs, which are of a pale grey 

 yellow or white, and either unicolorous or having large 

 brownish, almost invisible spots marked upon them. 



From a paper on the nidification of European birds, 

 in "Naumannia," for 1853, p. 419, by Baldamus, I 

 translate the following about the egg of the Francolin: — 

 "Two eggs in my collection, and many others in the Paris 

 collections, from Cyprus, differ materially from that 



