Alectoris Rufa Research Articles

The Effect of Ambient Temperature and Energy Level on Reproduction in Red-Legged Partridges

The effects of temperature and dietary energy on various reproductive parameters were studied in Red-Legged partridges (Alectoris graeca) reared in three environmental chambers at either 18.3, 23.9, or 29.5 C. These birds were then cycled through two consecutive production periods.In Period 1, at 38 weeks of age, the birds in each chamber, 118 pair total, were divided into four subgroups and fed a diet containing either 2600, 2800, 3000, or 3200 kcal/kg of metabolizable energy. The energy to protein ratio was held constant at 186. In Period 2, at 63 weeks of age, chambers with the lowest and highest temperatures were changed from 18.3 to 15.6 C and 29.5 to 32.2 C, respectively. Only the lowest and highest energy diets were used.In both periods, the birds kept at higher temperatures and fed the high energy diets consumed significantly less feed (P<.05) than the other comparable groups. Hatchability was significantly higher (P<.05) in groups fed the 3000 and 3200 kcal/kg diets as compared to the 2600 kcal/kg diet group. In Period 2, egg production increased in all groups, but birds kept at 32.2 C laid significantly fewer (P<.05) eggs per bird than those kept at 15.6 and 23.9 C, respectively.The best performance, as measured by salable chicks produced per hen, was obtained in the group kept under a constant temperature of 23. 9 C and fed the high energy diet (3200 kcal/kg).

Inbreeding Depression in the Red-Legged Partridge

Inbred lines were established in 1967 (Experiment 1) and 1978 (Experiment 2). They were continued for one and two additional generations of full-sib matings in the first and second experiments, respectively. In both experiments, alternating periods of stimulatory and nonstimulatory light were used to induce egg production in two 15-week production periods.In Experiment 1, 10 of 22 full-sib lines were lost after only one generation of full-sib mating. Of the 29 initial full-sib lines established in Experiment 2, only 6 survived two generations of full-sib inbred matings (F = .375).Egg weight, sexual maturity, and body weight were depressed significantly (P<.01) in birds 37.5% inbred. The two traits most severely affected were egg production and hatchability, which were reduced substantially after only one generation of full-sib mating.The results indicate that establishment and maintenance of highly inbred lines of partridge will require selection of matings from families having superior reproductive traits as well as alternating cycles of inbreeding such as by full-sib mating with crosses of unrelated inbred lines.

Anticoccidial drugs for preventive therapy in intensively reared pheasants.

A range of anticoccidial drugs was tested in young pheasants inoculated with three species of eimeria. Eimeria colchici, the most pathogenic species, was completely controlled by clopidol/methyl benzoquate and robenidine hydrochloride with the elimination of oocyst production. Clopidol and arprinocid gave good protection with reduced oocyst output and clopidol also adversely affected oocyst sporulation. Halofuginone and monensin were less effective. Amprolium hydrochloride/sulphaquinoxaline/ethopabate (ASE) and sulphaquinoxaline were ineffective. Both halofuginone and ASE controlled infections caused by E phasiani and E duodenalis. Halofuginone at 3, 6 or 9 ppm in the food produced no toxic effects in pheasants but growth rates of red-legged partridge chicks were retarded by concentrations of 3 and 6 ppm. Halofuginone protected young pheasants in a field trial in which sulphaquinoxaline was less effective.

Reproductive Performance in Aged Partridge

Various reproductive traits were studied in three groups of Red-legged partridge, 72, 60, and 18 months of age, that were mated in all possible age-combinations for two 10-week production periods. Between periods of lay, the males were switched among the females within each age group. The two oldest groups of birds had been held previously under either a stimulatory (16L:8D) or nonstimulatory (8L:16D) light treatment, respectively, from hatch to 48 months of age.Sexual maturity, egg production, fertility, and hatchability were determined. Egg production and fertility were significantly lower in the two oldest groups as compared to younger birds. Major differences in several reproductive traits were found between the two oldest groups. It is suggested that the normal response to photostimulation is altered in birds exposed to long periods of non-stimulatory light, resulting in a decrease of productivity during later periods of life.

Photorefractoriness and Sexual Response in Aging Partridge Kept Under Constant Long- and Short-Day Photoperiods

The duration of post-juvenile refractoriness was studied in Red-legged partridge kept under a long constant 16-hr photoperiod from hatch to 55 months of age. A second group of partridge was kept under a short constant 8-hr photoperiod from hatch to 38 months of age. Body weight was measured bimonthly, and daily egg production kept on birds reaching sexual maturity.Eighty one percent of all birds were alive at 36 months of age. Birds kept under a constant 16-hr photoperiod were generally heavier at all ages than comparable birds kept under 8-hr photoperiods.Refractoriness was terminated in 38% of the hens kept continuously under a 16-hr day. The first hen laid at 475 days of age. Median age at first egg for other sexually mature birds was 968 days. Forty percent of all birds kept under a constant 8-hr day laid at a median age of 339 days.It was concluded that post-juvenile refractoriness can be interrupted in some partridge without previous exposure to a short-day photoperiod. It is likely that uncontrolled resident temperature fluctuations and other seasonal effects may serve as preconditioned to lay.

Growth Rate in Three Gallinaceous Species Fed Diets Imbalanced in Calcium, Phosphorus, and Protein

Three gallinaceous species, the Ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), Red-legged partridge (Alectoris gracea), and chicken fryer (Gallus gallus domesticus) were fed diets containing either 15, 20, or 28% protein, 1 or 3% calcium, and .3 or .6% available phosphorus from hatch through 3 weeks of age.Chicks of all species grew poorly on diets containing 3% calcium and .3% available phosphorus, especially at the higher levels of dietary protein (20 and 28%). When fed diets containing .6% available phosphorus and 15% protein, pheasants and chickens had the same rate of growth from hatch through 3 weeks of age, irrespective of the level of dietary calcium.Feed conversion for groups of birds fed diets containing 1% calcium and .6% available phosphorus at all levels of protein was superior to that from birds fed diets containing similar levels of phosphorus and protein but containing 3% calcium.The higher level of dietary calcium (3%) in rations low in available phosphorus (.3%) caused leg paralysis in many birds of all species after 2 weeks of experiment at the higher levels of protein (20 and 28%). The incidence of leg weakness and mortality, after 3 weeks of experiment, was highest in pheasants followed by chickens and partridge.Irrespective of dietary protein, bone ash values for birds fed diets low in available phosphorus (.3%) and calcium (1%) were significantly (P<.01) higher than that for birds fed diets containing similar levels of protein and phosphorus but higher levels of calcium (3%). Bone ash values obtained for pheasants were consistently lower than those for chickens and partridge, especially when the dietary calcium level was 1%.Diets high in calcium (3%) and low in available phosphorus (.3%) can cause poor growth, severe paralysis, and high mortality if mistakenly fed to chicks of gallinaceous birds, especially pheasants, and result in major economic losses.

Organochiorine insecticide residues in red-legged partridge.

Organochiorine insecticide residues in red-legged partridge.

Polychromatisme et polymorphisme biochimique chez cinq espèces de phasianidés

A correspondence between egg shell polychromatism and polymorphism of egg white proteins is presented and discussed in five related species of Phasianidae: Coturnix coturnix japonica, Lophortyx californica, Perdix perdix, Alectoris rufa and Phasianus colchicus.

Biochemical polymorphism in the red partridge (Alectoris rufa)

Egg white proteins, hemoglobin, serum proteins and enzymes from Alectoris rufa have been examined by starch gel electrophoresis. All three genetic parameters, mean proportion of loci polymorphic per population (P), mean numbers of alleles per locus (A), and mean proportion of loci heterozygous per individual (H) are given for Alectoris rufa, and comparison were made between the proteins of the related species Coturnix coturnix japonica.

Interspecific transplantations of embryonic gonads of phasianidea

When indifferent gonads from red-legged partridges, Japanese quail or pintado embryos were transplanted into the coelomic cavity of early chick embryos, they differentiated into ovaries and testes, regardless of the sex of the host. Testicular transplants brought about the retrogression of both Müllerian ducts in female hosts, and ovarian transplants the feminization of the left testis in male hosts. This demonstrates hormonal activity of the embryonic gonads in the 3 species under study. Since the embryonic sex hormones show inter-specific activity, they may be of identical chemical nature.

Note on the Effects of Thiram on the Laying and Rearing of the Red-Legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa)

Note on the Effects of Thiram on the Laying and Rearing of the Red-Legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa)

Voice and Social Behavior of the Chukar Partridge

The Chukar Partridge (Ale&& grueca) is difficult to study in the rugged country in which it occurs in the United States. Life history studies of the Chukar in Nevada (Christensen, 1954), Washington (Galbreath and Moreland, 1953), and Utah (Phelps, 1954) have dealt mostly with habitat and food requirements but only slightly with calls and social behavior. Hume and Marshall (1880), in what is the best description of the i bird in its native range, have little to say about calls or displays. Since so many calls of the Chukar are soft and infrequent, they are best studied under penned conditions. Goodwin’s study (1953) of the closely related Red-legged Partridge (Alectmis rufa) / : has been a great help. The white chin flanked by the black V, the conspicuous dark and white vertical bars on the flanks, and the chestnut tail feathers covered with gray upper tail coverts are conspicuous plumage characters prominent in the display of both species. Many of their calls are similar in quality and the situation in which they occur. Studies of the brown leghorn chicken by Wood-Gush (1954, 1956) have been especially valuable for their descriptions and analyses of galliform behavior. Wherever possible I have used the same terminology as the aforementioned authors in describing calls and behavior patterns. This paper presents observations on the behavior of the adult Chukar Partridge both in the wild and in captivity. This account is largely descriptive with only tentative conclusions about causation and function of behavior. For a quantitative analysis of the motivation of calls and display the reader is referred to a forthcoming paper “Agonistic and Sexual Behaviour in the Chukar Partridge” (Stokes, in press). This study was made from 1955 through 1960. In 19.55 I kept three males and five females in a pen with wire sides and top measuring 40X60 feet from January through May. The floor of this pen was bare ground during winter, but it had moderate ground cover in spring. In 1956 I used 12 males and 12 females. Three males and three females were kept in the same outdoor pen as in 1955 to observe display and pair formation. The remainder were separated as to sex and kept apart from the birds in the pen. From time to time these birds were placed singly in the pen to observe the reaction of the penned birds to newcomers. In 1957 I held 16 birds in three outdoor pens measuring 30x60 feet with emphasis on nesting behavior. In 1960 most observations were of birds kept in isolation except during paired encounters between birds of the same or opposite sex. These birds were exposed to 14 hours of artificial light daily from January 15 until then end of observation in May. Paired observations of these birds began in March at a time ’ when sexual and aggressive behavior was increasing rapidly. In addition to the caged birds, I observed Chukar Partridges in the wild in northern Utah for about 40 hours. I am indebted to the Utah Department of Fish and Game for the generous supply of birds from its game farm; to Dr. Carroll I. Draper, Department of Poultry Husbandry, and Dr. Arthur D. Smith, Department of Range Management, both at Utah State University, for the use of pens and other facilities; and to H. W. Williams and Dr. Keith L. Dixon for their critical reviews of the manuscript. This project was supported in part by the Division of Research and by the Utah Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at Utah State University. CALLS

Sarcocystis sp. in the red-legged partridge, Alectoris rufa, and the pheasant, Phasianus colchicus.

A RED-LEGGED partridge, Alectoris rufa, was sent to this laboratory from Norfolk for post-mortem examination. It was an old cock which had died of a heavy infestation of Syngamus trachea, but it was also parasitized with a species of Sarcocystis.

The Breeding of the Red-Legged Partridge

The Breeding of the Red-Legged Partridge

Age Determination and Dating Nesting Events in the Willow Ptarmigan

A thorough knowledge of sex and age ratios and the nesting phenology of game birds has become an integral part of modern game bird studies. The consistent and regular moult of the primaries in game birds has proved valuable in facilitating the assembling of comprehensive data on nesting events when the moult pattern is understood. This regular wing moult pattern was first described and used as an accurate aging method by Bureau (1911) for the common partridge, Perdix perdix, and the red-legged partridge, Alectoris rufa (1913). In later studies, the wing moult and its use in age determination and dating of nesting events have been described for the bobwhite quail, Colinus virginianus (Petrides and Nestler, 1943; Thompson and Kabat, 1950; Petrides, 1952; and Reeves, 1952); the pheasant, Phasianus colchicus (Buss, 1946; Kabat, Thompson and Kozlick, 1950); the ruffed grouse, Bonasa umbellus (Bump et al., 1947; Hale and Wendt, 1951). McCabe and Hawkins (1946) added further data on the wing moult of the partridge; Thompson and Taber (1948) were the first to use wing moult data for producing reference tables for dating nesting events in pheasants, partridges and bobwhite quail. A similar reference chart for dating nesting events in the willow ptarmigan, Lagopus lagopus, is presented here as an aid in assembling nesting data. Whereas much material on the nesting of the willow ptarmig n is available in the Norwegian literature, very little is known and recorded about t breeding of this bird in Canada and Alaska.

The Chukar Partridge in Nevada

The chukar partridge, Alectoris graeca chukar (J. E. Gray), a Himalayan subspecies of the red-legged rock partridge occuring over much of southern Eurasia, has been introduced, chiefly in the last two decades, in many parts of the United States. What sucess in establishment it has had, has been chiefly in certain western states (Aldrich, 1947); probably it has been most successful in Nevada. Regular hunting seasons for the species were first possible in Nevada, although they have since (in the autumn of 1949) been opened in the state of Washington. The chukar partridge has, in a relatively short time, built up to rather large populations in some areas of Nevada even though comparatively small numbers of birds were liberated initially. It seems worthwhile, therefore, to record what has been learned concerning the chukar partridge in Nevada, both because continued effort is being made to establish or increase this partridge in this and other states and, more especially, because the population of this partridge has increased to such numbers that a shootable surplus has been produced. It is of considerable moment that another exotic game bird is succeeding in North America as have the Hungarian partridge and the ring-necked pheasant. Most of the reports on the chukar partridge in different states (Bade in California, 1937; Nagel in Missouri, 1939; et. al.) deal mainly with the introduction or artificial breeding of chukars and provide little information on the establishment and consequent activities of the bird in the wild state. Moreland's paper (1950) on the establishment of chukar partridge in Washington, and Nagel's (1945) paper are notable exceptions. The present report is concerned with the establishment of the partridge in Nevada and with understanding its success there. Methods of liberation, activities immediately subsequent to liberation, and establishment under conditions of partial domestication have been studied in Nevada as they were in California (Richardson, 1941) but, except for the last subject, will not be discussed here.

Some Notes on Two definitely distinct Aberrations of the Red‐legged Partridge, Alectoris rufa rufa (Linnæus)

Some Notes on Two definitely distinct Aberrations of the Red‐legged Partridge, Alectoris rufa rufa (Linnæus)

Age Determination in Juvenal Bob-White Quail

Criteria for separating young of the year from adult gallinaceous birds are comparatively well known and have been treated in an earlier paper (Petrides, 1942), but more exact methods of determining age have yet to be developed for most species. The present study is an attempt to provide age determination data for bob-whites (Colinus virginianus) one to five months old, similar to that determined by Louis Bureau for the Hungarian partridge (Perdix perdix) and red quail (Alectoris rufa) in France. His reports (1911, 1913) contain tables and diagrams of wing feather replacement and growth that purportedly permit the determination of age, within 1 to 3 days, of healthy birds collected during their post-juvenal molt.

The Birds of Leicestershire

THE Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society has formed an Ornithological Society for Leicestershire and Rutland, which is compiling a report on past and present field records, to be issued in 1942 as a preliminary to bringing up to date Montagu Browne's 1889 “Fauna of Leicestershire”. A meeting in Leicester Museum last September decided to form an Ornithological Society, as a sub-section of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, to meet monthly, Mr. F. Brady being elected chairman and Mr. A. E. Jolley secretary. A duplicated December bulletin, just issued, records the little owl, kestrel, partridge, red-legged partridge and a flight of grey geese within Leicester City bounds, and at the sewage farm a flock of tree sparrows, while a pectoral sandpiper is reported from Northampton Sewage Farm. At a large starling roost at March Covert, near Lockington, the ground was found to be littered with rubber bands believed to have been swallowed by the birds and later either vomited or passed in their exereta. They varied from fruit bottle to tobacco tin bands. Similar instances of this type have been recorded elsewhere with arctic terns, gulls and rooks, and it is probable that the birds mistake them for food, afterwards ejecting them as undigestible. At the flooded Wanlip osier beds, teal, pochard, shoveler and wigeon have been observed among the duck, as well as snipe, curlew and a peregrine. A sheldrake is recorded inland from the River Sence near Kilby Bridge. Although only opened in 1941 the Eye Valley Reservoir has already proved an important bird haunt.

The Food of Adult Partridges, Perdix perdix and Alectoris rufa, in Great Britain

THE work on which this paper is based forms part of a research into the ecology of game birds carried on by the Bureau of Animal Population. This research has been made possible by a grant from Imperial Chemical Industries and by the donations of landowners and others interested in game preservation. Our thanks are due not only to those who have helped financially but to shooting men and keepers in all parts of the country who give facilities for this work on their estates and send us birds for examination. The sorting out and identification of most of the seeds and other plant food was done by E. Arthurs of the Oxford Botanical Department, while the identification and volumetric measurements of insects were carried out by John Ford and E. W. Aubrooke in the Hope Department of Entomology at Oxford. We are greatly indebted to them for this assistance. The present paper deals only with the food of adult wild partridges. Material collected from young partridges is being analysed and the results will be published later. Young birds are classed as adults when killed any time after the opening of the shooting season, September 1st, but a record has been kept of whether the birds examined were young adults or old birds (over 16 months old) except when crops were sent in separately by keepers and others without data. Altogether, 429 adult grey partridges (Perdix perdix) and 29 red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa) have been examined for food. The crop contents only have been used for this purpose as food found in the gizzard is usually in such a finely divided state as to be almost unrecognizable and certainly of no value for quantitative work. There is no reason to doubt that the crop contents alone form a truly representative sample of the food eaten. As there is no evidence to suggest that some food items pass more quickly than others from the crop