Double-spurred Francolin

About the Double-spurred Francolin

The double-spurred spurfowl (Pternistis bicalcaratus) is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. Like most spurfowls, it is restricted to Africa. It is a resident breeder in tropical West Africa, but there is a small and declining isolated population in Morocco.

In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the double-spurred spurfowl in his Ornithologie, based on a specimen that had been collected in Senegal. He used the French name "La Perdrix du Sénégal" and the Latin "Perdix Senegalensis." Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the double-spurred spurfowl. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Tetrao bicalcaratus and cited Brisson's work. The specific epithet bicalcaratus combines the Latin bi meaning "two" and calcaris meaning "spur". The species... Wikipedia →