92 ALLEN S NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



Caccabis chiikar, G. R. Gray, List of B. pt. iii. Gall. p. 36 

 (1844); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 113 



(1893). 

 Caccabis chukor, Hume and Marshall, Game Birds of India, 

 ii. p. 34, pi. (1879); Gates, ed. Hume's Nests and Eggs 

 Ind. B. iii. p. 431 (1890). 



Adult Male and Female. — Closely resemble the western form, C. 

 saxatilis, but always differ in having the lores, or space im- 

 mediately behind and below the nostril scale, white or whitish- 

 buff instead of black,* and the ear-coverts chestnut. 



Male: Total length, i4'6 inches; wing, 67 ; tail, 3*9; tar- 

 sus, 1*9. 



Female: Total length, i3"4 inches; wing, 65; tail, 3-8; 

 tarsus, 1-8. 



Range. — Asia, extending in the west to the Ionian Islands 

 [and possibly the mainland of Greece], in the east to China, 

 in the north to Mongolia and Turkestan, and in the south to 

 the Persian Gulf and possibly to Arabia. Island of St. Helena 

 [introduced]. 



This bird varies immensely in size and colour in different 

 localities, but all the various forms pass imperceptibly into one 

 another and must be regarded as mere climatic varieties ot 

 the same sub-species. The lightest coloured birds in all the 

 large series I have examined come from the arid neighbour- 

 hood of Bushire at the head of the Persian Gulf. Somewhat 

 darker forms occur at Bagdad and Shiraz, in Afghanistan, Sind, 

 Ladak, and other localities where the physical surroundings are 

 somewhat similar in character, while the darkest and most 

 richly-coloured examples are those from the Ionian Islands, 

 Cyprus, Asia Minor, and the outer Himalayas, where vegetation 

 is more plentiful. In birds from North China, the upper-parts of 

 the body have a more reddish tint, but specimens from northern 



* It must however be noted that some specimens of C. chnkar have a 

 very small spot of black feathers below the nasal opening, thus approach- 

 ing C. saxatilis. 



