On the Road to the Caspian 263 



respectful distance we found them difficult to 

 get into the bag. Their flight is slow and 

 laboured, with a peculiar fluttering action, due, 

 I suppose, to the shortness of their wings com- 

 pared to their weight. In the air they exhibit 

 a good deal of white which is quite unnoticeable 

 on the ground. To eat they are rank, or at least 

 they were when we passed through this country, 

 very different to the Houbara bustard we used 

 occasionally to shoot in Seistan. We did not 

 see any woodcock, though they are reputed to 

 visit this part and the whole of the southern 

 Caspian littoral in great numbers in winter. 

 The Belgian Customs Officer at Bandar Gez in- 

 deed told me that round about that port in 

 the winter there were so many snipe and wood- 

 cock that he got tired of shooting and eating 

 them ! l 



1 A mysterious bird is mentioned in Meynard's ' Dictionnaire 

 de la Perse ' under the name of kungur. According to the Persian 

 author quoted, this bird, about the size of a pigeon, with a curved 

 bill and a tail like a parroquet's, arrives in Tabarestan in the 

 spring, followed by birds like sparrows, but with particoloured 

 plumage. Every day one of the latter brings food to the kungur, 

 but in the evening the ungrateful bird falls upon his attendant 

 and devours him. In like manner each day a small bird sacrifices 

 himself. The spring over, they all disappear together. 



Another bird of a less mythical character, sometimes seen on the 

 tops of the mountains in these parts, is the Kabk-i-Darreh, the 

 "Partridge of the Valley." From a skin I have seen, the bird 



