Few gray francolins have been liberated in the States in habitat 
where native game birds are common, Small populations of bobwhites 
are present on one gray francolin release area in central Texas, Some 
Gambel's quail and scaled quail are found in or at the edge of some of 
the release areas in southern New Mexico. Francolin liberations have 
been made at the edge of or beyond the range of Gambel's quail in 
Nevada. There are no native game birds on the island of Lanai in Hawaii 
where gray francolins are reported to have successfully established 
themselves (11). Limited to intensive, follow-up studies of francolins 
released on the areas mentioned above have not indicated any noticeable 
competition between grays and native game birds. 
Little difficulty was encountered in India in keeping up to 85 
wild-trapped gray francolins together in 9 x 12 x 6 foot pens for the 
two months of conditioning and quarantine preceding their shipment to 
the States, In Karachi, however, one male, subsequently identified as 
a bird trained for fighting, did kill six other males before being 
apprehended and removed from the pen. On several occasions, black 
francolins, gray francolins, chukars, seesee partridges, pheasants and 
red junglefowls were kept in the same pen through the spring and summer 
months with no sign of combativeness except on the part of the male 
junglefowl (Figure 22, page 40). In one case in which gray francolins 
were penned with seesees the latter proved to be the dominant species. 
Breeding and Raising 
Gray francolins are not difficult to breed and raise in numbers in 
captivity. In general, the techniques and problems follow closely those 
discussed for black francolins on pages 41 to 44 of this report. 
Several private aviculturalists have raised this species quite 
successfully but to date, the Largest number of birds produced in cap- 
tivity has been on the Texas State Quail Farm near Tyler. Starting 
with a few individuals of the northern gray francolin, wild-trapped in 
the lower Indus Valley of West Pakistan, they experienced the usual 
lack of egg production until the breeders became adjusted to captivity. 
But as first and then second generation breeders became available, the 
number of eggs per female increased. In 1963, 60 females averaged 37 
eggs per bird. From the resulting chicks 778 birds were reared for 
trial release (11). 
Gray francolins, like bamboo partridges, may, on occasion, nest 
and rear broods in the breeding pens in which they are confined. Two 
females, penned at the New Mexico State Game Farm, nested and reared a 
total of 12 young in 1963. Superintendent Newton believes that, had 
not most eggs been gathered daily from the pens for artificial incuba- 
tion, more breeders might have brought up broods (53). 
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