236 INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



Chukor. 



Caccahis chucar. Chukar, Hindustani. 



The chukor, a very familiar bird in the hilly and mountainous 

 parts of Northern India, is distinguished from all other partridges 

 by having no pencilling or streaking upon the upper plumage, 

 which is also much greyer than in any of the others, in fact, 

 often more grey than brown ; the colour varies according to 

 situation, the greyest birds being found in dry districts with but 

 little cover, and the brownest in places where there is plenty of 

 moisture and shelter. This is, in fact, the most versatile of all 

 partridges in its choice of a habitat; as Hume says, "In one 

 place it faces a noonday temperature of 150° F., in another 

 braves a cold, about daybreak, little above zero : here it thrives 

 where the annual rainfall exceeds 100 inches, and there flourishes 

 where it is practically nil." 



In its red beak and feet, the legs armed in the cock with a 

 lumpy apology for a spur, its black necklace round a white 

 (sometimes buff) throat, and the handsome vertical bars of 

 black and brown on its blue-grey flanks, this bird at once 

 recalls to mind its near relative, the "Frenchman," at home. 

 It is a good big bird as partridges go, though very variable, hens 

 being about a pound, while cocks may be half as heavy again. 

 In the Himalayas it ranges up to 16,000 feet, being found in 

 Ladakh, but is also found in the comparatively rich country of 

 the southern hills, and ranges down to the Punjab hills and the 

 barren rocky Mekran coast ; but it is not found east of the 

 Indus in Sind, and does not extend to Sikkim. In Kashmir it 

 is known as Kau-kau, in Chamba as Chukrii. 



It is a sedentary bird, not wandering much from its chosen 

 haunts wherever they may be situated ; and though grassy hills 

 are a favourite resort, rocky, bushy ravines will also hold chukor, 

 and they like the vicinity of cultivation, and often glean in the 

 cornfields in autumn; jungle they entirely avoid. In winter 

 quite large packs, even up to a hundred in number, may be met 

 with, where the birds are plentiful, but in any case coveys are 

 the rule at this season, though when breeding they pair off as 



