---
title: Partridge Tun (Tonna perdix)
scientific_name: Tonna perdix
common_name: Partridge Tun
taxon: Prosobranchia
published: 2026-08-11T15:43:16.980Z
updated: 2026-08-11T17:37:29.201Z
tags: Partridge Tun, Tonna perdix, Prosobranchia, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/prosobranchia/partridge-tun
---

# Partridge Tun (*Tonna perdix*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Prosobranchia (*Prosobranchia*)
- **Size:** up to 25 cm
- **Depth:** 2-50 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open sand and rubble slopes, buried by day
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- large thin globose shell with broad spiral ribs and no operculum
- brown with crescent-shaped white marks, like a game bird's plumage
- pale body far too big to fit back inside the shell
- shell to 25 cm

A big, light, balloon of a shell - up to 25 cm (10 in) but thin enough to crush in one hand - ribbed in broad spirals and marked in brown with pale crescents that reminded early naturalists of a partridge's plumage. There is no operculum, no door to close, which tells you this animal does not rely on hiding.

The body is the surprise. Fully extended, the pale foot and flaring mantle are several times the volume of the shell, and the animal looks less like a snail wearing a shell than like a shell being smuggled along under a duvet. It cannot fully retract, and any photograph of a live one shows an animal that has clearly outgrown its own house.

It hunts sea cucumbers, which it swallows whole. The proboscis stretches over prey much larger than the snail's own aperture, helped by saliva containing sulfuric acid strong enough to subdue a holothurian, and the meal goes down entire. Divers who find one on a night dive usually find it mid-swallow.

## Also known as

- **English:** Pacific partridge tun, partridge tun
- **German:** Tauben-Fassschnecke
- **Japanese:** ウズラガイ
- **Russian:** Тонна куропатковая

## Scientific synonyms

- *Buccinum perdix* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Cadium perdix* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Cadus coturnix* Röding, 1798
- *Cadus meleagris* Röding, 1798
- *Cadus perdix* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Dolium (Dolium) perdix* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Dolium (Dolium) perdix var. rufa* (Blainville, 1829)
- *Dolium pennatum* Schröter, 1788
- *Dolium perdix* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Dolium perdix var. rufa* Blainville, 1829
- *Dolium plumatum* Green, 1830
- *Dolium rufum* Blainville, 1829
- *Macgillivrayia pelagica* Forbes, 1852
- *Perdix reticulatus* Montfort, 1810
- *Tonna (Tonna) perdix* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Tonna perdix var. rufa* (Blainville, 1829)

## Range

China, Hawaii, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Mascarene Islands, Mozambique, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/prosobranchia/partridge-tun)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*