The grey francolin (''Ortygornis pondicerianus'') is a species of
francolin
Francolins are birds in the tribe Gallini that traditionally have been placed in the genus ''Francolinus'', but now commonly are divided into multiple genera.
As previously defined, they were paraphyletic as the genus '' Pternistis'', which wa ...
found in the plains and drier parts of the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
and
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
. This species was formerly also called the grey partridge, not to be confused with the European
grey partridge
The grey partridge (''Perdix perdix'') is a bird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. The scientific name is the Latin for "partridge".
Taxonomy
The grey partridge formally described in 1758 by the S ...
. They are mainly ground-living birds and are found in open cultivated lands as well as scrub forest and their local name of ''teetar'' is based on their calls, a loud and repeated ''Ka-tee-tar...tee-tar'' which is produced by one or more birds. The term ''teetar'' can also refer to other partridges and quails. During the breeding season calling males attract challengers, and decoys were used to trap these birds especially for
fighting.
Taxonomy
The grey francolin was
formally described
A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...
in 1789 by the German naturalist
Johann Friedrich Gmelin
Johann Friedrich Gmelin (8 August 1748 – 1 November 1804) was a German natural history, naturalist, chemist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist.
Education
Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp F ...
in his revised and expanded edition of
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
's ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...
''. He placed it with all the grouse like birds in the
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
''
Tetrao
''Tetrao'' is a genus of birds in the grouse subfamily known as capercaillies. They are some of the largest living grouse. Feathers from the bird were used to create the characteristic hat of the bersaglieri, an Italian ace infantry formation.
...
'' and coined the
binomial name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...
''Tetrao pondicerianus''. Gmelin based his description on "Le perdix de Pondichéry" that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist
Pierre Sonnerat
Pierre Sonnerat (18 August 1748 – 31 March 1814) was a French naturalist, colonial administrator, writer and explorer. He described numerous species of plants and animals on his travels and is honoured in the genus ''Sonneratia'' and in other ...
in his ''Voyage aux Indes orientales et a la Chine''. The grey francolin was formerly placed in the genus ''
Francolinus
''Francolinus'' is a genus of birds in the francolin group of the tribe Gallini in the pheasant family. Species
Its three species range from western Asia and central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzsta ...
''. Based on a phylogenetic study published in 2019 the grey francolin, together with the
crested francolin
The crested francolin (''Ortygornis sephaena'') is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae.
It is found in southern Africa. One of its subspecies, ''Ortygornis sephaena rovuma'', is sometimes considered a separate species, Kirk's francolin.
...
and
swamp francolin
The swamp francolin (''Ortygornis gularis''), also called swamp partridge, is a francolin species native to the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India and Nepal. It is considered extinct in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. It is ...
, were moved to the resurrected genus ''Ortygornis'' that had been introduced in 1852 by the German naturalist
Ludwig Reichenbach
Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (8 January 1793 – 17 March 1879) was a German botanist, ornithologist and illustrator. It was he who first requested Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Leopold Blaschka to make a set of glass marine invertebrate m ...
.
The genus name combines the
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
''ortux'' meaning "quail" with ''ornis'' meaning "bird". The specific epithet ''pondicerianus'' is from the toponym
Pondicherry
Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...
, a town in southeast India.
Three
subspecies
In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
are recognised:
[
* ''O. p. mecranensis'' ( Zarudny & Härms, 1913) – south Iran and south Pakistan
* ''O. p. interpositus'' ( Hartert, E, 1917) – east Pakistan, north India and Nepal
* ''O. p. pondicerianus'' ( Gmelin, JF, 1789) – south India and Sri Lanka
]
Description
This bird is a medium-sized francolin, with males averaging and females averaging . The males weigh whereas the weight of the females is . The francolin is barred throughout and the face is pale with a thin black border to the pale throat. The only similar species is the painted francolin, which has a rufous
Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish- red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a d ...
vent. The male can have up to two spurs on the legs while females usually lack them. Subspecies ''mecranensis'' is palest and found in arid North-Western India, Eastern Pakistan and Southern Iran. Subspecies ''interpositus'' is darker and intermediate found in northern India. The nominate race in the southern peninsula of India has populations with a darker rufous throat, supercilium
The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...
and is richer brown. They are weak fliers and fly short distances, escaping into undergrowth after a few spurts of flight. In flight it shows a chestnut tail and dark primaries. The race in Sri Lanka is sometimes given the name ''ceylonensis'' or considered as belonging to the nominate.
Distribution and habitat
The grey francolin is normally found foraging on bare or low grass covered ground in scrub and open country, and is rarely found above an altitude of 500 m above sea level in India, and 1200 m in Pakistan. The distribution is south of the foothills of the Himalaya
The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...
s westwards to the Indus Valley
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the disp ...
and eastwards to Bengal
Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...
. It is also found in north-western Sri Lanka. Introduced populations are found in the Andaman
Andaman may refer to:
* Andaman Islands, an island group in the Bay of Bengal
* Andaman Island, Penang, an artificial island in George Town, Penang
* Andaman Sea, a sea of the eastern Indian Ocean
* ''Andaman'' (1998 film), an Indian Kannada-lang ...
and Chagos
The Chagos Archipelago (, ) or Chagos Islands (formerly , and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmo ...
Islands.[ They have been introduced to ]Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
in the United States of America and Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
, along with several other species of francolin
Francolins are birds in the tribe Gallini that traditionally have been placed in the genus ''Francolinus'', but now commonly are divided into multiple genera.
As previously defined, they were paraphyletic as the genus '' Pternistis'', which wa ...
.
Behaviour and ecology
The loud calls of the birds are commonly heard early in the mornings. Pairs of birds will sometimes engage in a duet. The female call is a ''tee...tee...tee'' repeated and sometimes a ''kila..kila..kila'' and the challenge call ''kateela..kateela..kateela'' is a duet. They are usually seen in small groups.[
]
The main breeding season is April to September and the nest is a hidden scrape on the ground.[ The nest may sometimes be made above ground level in a niche in a wall or rock. The clutch is six to eight eggs, but larger clutches, potentially reflecting intraspecific brood parasitism, have been noted.]
Food includes seeds, grains as well as insects, particularly termites[ and beetles (especially ]Tenebrionidae
Darkling beetle is the common name for members of the beetle family Tenebrionidae, comprising over 20,000 species in a cosmopolitan distribution.
Taxonomy
''Tenebrio'' is the Latin generic name that Carl Linnaeus assigned to some flour beetles ...
and Carabidae
Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan family of beetles, the Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, around 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe. As of 2015, it is one of the 10 most species-rich animal ...
). They may occasionally take larger prey such as snakes.
They roost in groups in low thorny trees.
Several species of feather mites, helminth and blood parasites have been described from the species.
Status
They are hunted in much of their range using low nets and easily caught using calling decoy birds.[
]
In culture
The species has long been domesticated in areas of northern Indian subcontinent where it is used for fighting.[
] The domesticated birds can be large at around 500-600g, compared to 250g for wild birds. They are usually carefully reared by hand and become as tame and confiding as a pet dog.[
Several authors have described the running of the birds as being particularly graceful:
]John Lockwood Kipling
John Lockwood Kipling (6 July 1837 – 26 January 1911) was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling.
Life and career
Lockwood Kipling was b ...
, Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
's father, wrote of this and other partridges such as the chukar partridge
The chukar partridge (''Alectoris chukar''), or simply chukar, is a Palearctic upland Upland game, gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It has been considered to form a superspecies complex along with the rock partridge, Philby's partrid ...
:
References
Further reading
*
* Johnson, J Mangalaraj (1968) Grey Partridge abandoning nest on removal of grass cover over its path to nest. Indian Forester 94:780.
* Davis, G (1939) On Indian Grey and Black Partridges (''Francolinus pondicerianus'' and ''Francolinus francolinus''). The Avicultural Magazine, 5 4(5):148-151.
* Gabriel, A (1970) Some observations on the Ceylon Grey Partridge. Loris 12(1):60-62.
*
*Sharma, IK (1983) The Grey Partridge (''Francolinus pondicerianus'') in the Rajasthan desert. Annals Arid Zone. 22(2), 117–120.
*Soni, VC (1978) Intersexuality in the Gray Partridge. Game Bird Breeders Avicult. Zool. Conserv. Gaz. 27(7), 12–13.
*Hartert, E (1917) Notes on game-birds. VII. The forms of ''Francolinus pondicerianus''. Novit. Zool. 24, 287–288.
* Purwar, RS (1975) Anatomical, neurohistological and histochemical observations on the tongue of Francolinus pondicerianus (grey partridge or safed teeter). Acta Anat. 93(4):526-33.
* Purwar, RS (1976) Neuro-histochemical observations on the pancreas of Francolinus pondicerianus (grey partridge or safed teeter) as revealed by the cholinesterase technique. Z. Mikrosk. Anat. Forsch. 90(6):1009-16.
External links
Aviculture
{{Taxonbar, from=Q939650
grey francolin
The grey francolin (''Ortygornis pondicerianus'') is a species of francolin found in the plains and drier parts of the Indian subcontinent and Iran. This species was formerly also called the grey partridge, not to be confused with the European gr ...
Birds of the Middle East
Birds of South Asia
grey francolin
The grey francolin (''Ortygornis pondicerianus'') is a species of francolin found in the plains and drier parts of the Indian subcontinent and Iran. This species was formerly also called the grey partridge, not to be confused with the European gr ...
grey francolin
The grey francolin (''Ortygornis pondicerianus'') is a species of francolin found in the plains and drier parts of the Indian subcontinent and Iran. This species was formerly also called the grey partridge, not to be confused with the European gr ...
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN