90 BIRDS OF THE PLAINS 



wingless skzkarz that it would be a contemptible creature 

 were it not difficult to shoot. Were I the leader of a 

 covey of chukor, I should thoroughly enjoy an attempt 

 to shoot me. Having taken up a strategic position 

 near the summit of a steep hill, I should squat there in 

 full view until the sportsman had by laborious effort 

 climbed to a spot some hundred and twenty yards from 

 where I was sitting ; I should then gracefully retire with 

 my retinue across the k/iud to the opposite hill, and 

 watch with interest the shooter clamber down one 

 limb of an isosceles triangle and swarm up the other. 

 Some time before he had completed the operation I 

 should again proceed to give him a practical demonstra- 

 tion of the fact that the base of certain triangles is con- 

 siderably shorter than the sum of the other two sides. 



If you take away from the chukor his natural ad- 

 vantages I am inclined to think that the grey partridge 

 {Francolinus pondicerianus) is the more difficult bird to 

 shoot. This species is common in most parts of India, 

 yet I do not remember ever having heard of any one 

 making a big bag of grey partridge. Some there are 

 who say that the bird is not worth shooting. If these 

 good folk mean that the shooting of the partridge in- 

 volves so large an expenditure of ammunition as to 

 deter them from the undertaking I am inclined to agree 

 with them. Given a fair field in the shape of a plain 

 well studded with prickly pear, there is, in my opinion, 

 no bird more difficult to hit than the grey partridge. It 

 is, like all game birds proper, a very rapid flier for a 

 short distance. But it is not so much this which makes 

 it hard to shoot as the rapidity with which it can run 



