March through May, summer, June through August, and fall, September 
through November. The average maximum (black circles) and average min- 
imum temperatures (white circles) in relation to precipitation for 34 
stations in the southwestern United States were plotted on these sum- 
maries. These circles are connected with a black line for easy refer- 
ence. The completed comparisons are presented in Figure 42 pages 62 
and 63. 
Average maximum and average minimum temperatures are generally low 
for many of the stations considered, except in spring. Only a few 
stations would seem to be so far out of line as to rule out the area 
surrounding them as potentially suitable for trial releases, 
Food and Water 
A delightful Indian proverb runs, "The gray francolin carries its 
food for its life in its beak" - meaning that it often frequents areas 
so dry that there appears to be no food there for it to eat. Even this 
challenging situation apparently did not stir either ornithologists, or 
bird lovers to investigate the matter further. 
Previous to the food habits studies made by Program biologists in 
West Pakistan and India, no attempts to explore the food preferences of 
gray francolins, in any detail, are recorded, Husain and Bhalla (27) 
scanned the foods eaten by 60 birds collected near Lyallpur, West Paki- 
stan, in 1926 and reported that grains, weed seeds, vegetable matter and 
insects such as locusts, black ants, termites, beetles and grubs, were 
commonly eaten. Ali (3) adds to this list the berries of Lantana. Other 
references in the literature are either still more general or limited to 
specific items that had attracted attention, 
In 1956 and 1957 Faruqi and Bump (19) analyzed the crop contents 
from 16 gray francolins, collected from a semi-desert area near Tatta, 
West Pakistan. Some cultivated grains were raised here, partly on irri- 
gated lands. Since reference collections of local seeds were unavail- 
able considerable time was spent in the field identifying the plants from 
which the seeds came. Other seeds were planted in pots to permit recog- 
nition as the plants matured, Of the crops examined, 9 contained only 
vegetable material, Both plant and animal items were found in seven 
crops. In all, 22 species of plants were identified. Vegetable matter 
most commonly taken included common mustard (Brassica compestris), wild 
millet (Erichloa procera), jungle rice (Echinochloa colona), a cruci- 
ferae (Farsetia jackmontii), and a grass s (Dactyloctenium | scindicum). 
Only two seeds from cultivated crops were present. Animal matter in- 
cluded black ants, termites, beetles, spiders and snails. 
In 1959 and 1960 Christensen (12), assisted by Indian botanists, com- 
pleted an analysis of 38 gray francolin crops, collected near Jodhpur in 
the semi-arid portion of the Thar desert in western India. He reported that 
20 species of plants, mostly in the form of seeds were eaten. Of these, 6 
were cultivated plants and of the 12 others identified all were commonly 
associated with, or found near, cultivation. Most commonly taken were panic 
65 
