570 Ornithological Journey in Fars, S.W. Persia. 



not notice it in the Dinar region, llock-strewn hill-sides, 

 whether overgrown with trees or not, seem to be its favourite 

 resort. Its flight, as it swings round a rock or sweeps down 

 a hill-side, is very perplexing to the gunner, especially when 

 he is balancing himself on a toppling boulder. One bird 

 quite puzzled me by disappearing suddenly and then, while I 

 was searching for it, flying up with a whirr from the depths 

 of a narrow crack in the rock. 



163. Caccabis saxatilis chukar Gray. 



Caccabis chukar Gray ; var., Blanford, t. c. p. 275. 



Caccabis chukar Gray; Sharpe, Ibis, 1886, p. 498. 



118, 303, 320, 361, 368, 405. Ad.; 392. Pull. 



The Chukars from Western Persia are always exceedingly 

 pale in coloration. The heads of some of my specimens 

 are almost white, and the upper parts of all of them are 

 of a pale ashy grey. A careful examination of the large 

 series of these birds in the British Museum has resulted in 

 a resolution to leave the matter alone so far as further 

 division of the species is concerned. The great variation in 

 the shades of colour of these birds is very puzzling. These 

 are not due, lam sure, to individual peculiarities, for almost 

 every district for some reason seems to produce a form with 

 a slightly different coloration. Birds from Mesopotamia, 

 Turkestan, and other countries are almost as pale as South- 

 west Persian birds ; while those from Eastern Persia are 

 dark, but not so dark as others from some parts of India ; 

 then some are pinker, some greyer, some browner. The 

 causes of these variations are not apparent ; for instance, 

 one would hardly expect from the woods of Western Persia 

 a paler bird than one from the desert-country of Eastern 

 Persia. It would be interesting to make a thorough study 

 of these variations in connexion with the nature of the 

 localities, and especially, I think, with the prevailing colour 

 of the ground from which each variety is derived. 



The Chukar was the most widely distributed bird we saw. 

 It was found at all altitudes and in all sorts of country, but 

 1 think that it was most numerous on the stony hill-sides, 



