followed family parties from one shrub clump to another, close enough 
to take movies, without the birds evidencing too much concern. In 
semi-arid Rajasthan, Christensen's trappers commonly herded groups of . 
grays slowly from clump to clump and into their nets. Where much- 
hunted, however, many birds may sit tight, frequently taking flight from 
the other side of a bush, or running briefly and then becoming airborne 
well out of gunshot. 
Roosting 
Normally these birds prefer small trees or thick, often spiny, 
shrubs in which to roost. After some hesitation, they settle down on 
the smaller, lateral branches, often well out from the trunk. Near 
Karachi, Pythian-Adams (39) observed them roosting on milkweed fences 
thrown up along field borders. 
Good gray francolin habitat usually is characterized by a scattering 
of trees or shrubs for roosting. Yet Humayan Abdulali (a) wrote us that 
"they also occur in semi-desert areas where there are almost no tall 
vegetation and where they, in all probability, roost on the ground. In 
Sind, West Pakistan, where large areas have but little vegetation except 
for occasional clumps of a low shrub (Capparis sp.) there is no doubt 
that they roost therein." 
Nesting and Renesting 
Gray francolins have the longest nesting season of any game bird with 
which we are acquainted. Hume (26) indicates that eggs have been found in 
every month of the year in India. Females, netted near Delhi, deposited 
eggs in our carrying boxes on February 18 and 19, 1959, Christensen (12) 
trapped youngsters not over three weeks old near Jodhpur as late as Janu- 
ary 1, 1960, There was no month during our October to April trapping 
season in which young birds were not caught in Pakistan and in northern 
India. Christensen and many other writers believe that there are two main 
breeding seasons in India. One is from February to the beginning of the 
June monsoons, the other at their conclusion in September through November, 
The nest is usually a slight depression in the ground casually lined 
with leaves and grass. It is often hidden under brush, slightly raised 
above the surrounding ground level, or on the banks of a nullah (dry 
stream) or a canal, Other locations may be alongside a clod of dirt or 
a tuft of grass. Hume often found the nests on quite bare ground. 
For nesting cover Lowther (30) suggests that two types are favored. 
These are "irregular ravines neither narrow or too deep, studded with 
light to medium scrub jungle, or light scrub land often with babul trees 
(Acacia sp.) intervening and bordered by cultivation." Baker (6) con- 
siders the bottom of hedges or isolated clumps of cactus as favorite 
nesting sites, Ali (3) lists grasslands, plowed fields, standing crops 
and scrub jungle as likely locations. 

(a) At the time, secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society. 
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