Ali (3) indicates that they inhabit dry, open grass and thorn-~scrub 
country interspersed with cultivation. Other authors describe suitable 
habitat as grazing lands with patches of second-growth deciduous shrubs; 
open, cultivated areas of the dry zone and adjacent patches of wasteland 
overgrown with thin shrub; open forests, and dense growths of shrubs 
such as Vitex negundo adjacent to fields of millet. Hume (25) writes, 
"I have shot them in the most desolate spots near the base of the hills 
in Sind, West Pakistan and on the Mekran Coast, Pakistan, Baluchistan, 
where there were no traces of vegetation at the time, and where, in the 
best season only a few straggling tufts of grass and (other) desert 
plants are to be seen." Birds, here, could not have been very abundant. 
We found them occasionally under similar conditions particularly if there 
was a scattering of trees or shrubs in which to roost at night. 
In the arid to semi-arid tracts of the Sind or Thar desert of east-~ 
ern West Pakistan, where rainfall averages 3 to 8 inches a year and irri- 
gated fields are the rule, gray francolins were often abundant. Here 
cover consisted of little save a few weeds and grass in predominantly 
bare spaces between clumps of a desert shrub, Capparis aphylla, on the 
fruits of which they fed and between which they scurried when pursued. 
Other common species of the sparse, dry desert scrub areas were Prosopis 
specigera, Calotropis gigantea, Salvadora aleoides, Salsola sp., Suaeda 
and Haloxylon griffithii. 
From further east in Rajasthan, India, where precipitation is from 
8 to 14 inches a year, Christensen (12) provides the following, excellent 
description of vegetation: 
"In the areas surrounding Jodhpur, Pokaran, and Bikaner, where the 
gray francolin and common sandgrouse trapping operations were carried out, 
the vegetational make-up of the habitat is dominated by an overstory of 
scattered mesquite (Prosopis specigera) with an understory of large spiny 
shrubs of which the principal ones are Capparis aphylla, Zizyphus, sp., 
Acacia leucophloea, Rhus mysorensis, and Euphorbia royleana. Along the 
roadways and in favorable low areas near the larger cities, the intro- 
duced honey mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) thrives, and in saline depres- 
sions species of tamarisk and other halophytes flourish. There are fre- 
quent expanses of bare ground, but during years of good precipitation the 
"desert floor" is covered with a turf of grasses and forbs. The forbs 
provide the major seed crop for the common sandgrouse and, to a lesser 
extent, the gray francolin. Some of the most common and prominent forbs 
are Calotropis sp., Aeura javanica, Indigofera sp., and Tephrosia sp. 
According to Sarup (44) and Sharma (45), there are at least 15 species 
of Cruciferae, 13 species of Capparidacea, 45 species of Leguminosea, 
16 species of Boraginaceae, 19 species of Solanaceae, and 49 species of 
Compositae. Grasses are very well represented with at least 88 species 
described from the area surrounding Jodhpur, Some of the most common 
ones are Elionurus hirsutus, Cenchrus sp., Heteropogon contortus, 
Gracilea royleana, Eragrostis major, Aristida sp., Cynodon dactylon and 
Sporobolus pallidus. Checkerboarding this vast desert region are small 
patches of cultivation which depend almost entirely upon the monsoon 
rains for success, The principal crops are millet (Pennisetum typhoideum) 
52 
