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Abstract

The crop and gizzard contents of 105 Double-spurred Francolins Francolinus bicalcaratus Linnaeus shot in the wild by hunters in Zaria and its environs were examined. Thirty food-organisms i.e., species or other taxa that served as food for the francolins were isolated from the gut content of the birds. Brachiaria stigmatisata and Vigna ambacensis were the most frequent food-organisms, having been found in the guts of 64 60.95 of the birds. In terms of the number of individual food items consumed by the birds, Setaria pallide-fusca scored the highest with 9.873 22.72 of the isolated food items. Gravimetrically, Sorghum bicolor was the most significant food-organism, accounting for 27.50 of the bulk of food items consumed. These four food-organisms appeared to be the most important food components in the habitats of the Double-spurred Francolins. With respect to the plant species consumed by the birds, food habits did not differ significantly between sexes p0.05. However, female birds appeared to eat more animal materials than the males p