206 CHINESE TURKESTAN . 



Chikor, resembling the red-legged partridge. 



Quail. 



Hares. 



Ram-chikor, black game, in the hills only. 



Geese. 



Duck chiefly mallard, teal, golden eye, and some 

 gadwall in the spring. 



Snipe. 



The lesser bustard and geese we did not see, as 

 they had left before we got there. The greater 

 bustard, quail, and most of the duck also migrate 

 during the winter ; but a few of the latter and some 

 mergansers stop on about Kuldja, where there are 

 some warm springs. 



Probably the simplest way to reach the Tekkes is 

 by Batoum and the trans-Caspian railway to 

 Tashkent, thence drive to Kuldja a sixteen days' 

 journey at least for a tarantass the total time from 

 England being from 40 to 45 days. Stores of all 

 sorts can be got in Tashkent. The language is the 

 great difficulty ; few Englishmen knowing Russian, 

 and fewer still Turki, which is the more useful of 

 the two. 



Whether it is worth while to go so far is a matter 

 of individual opinion ; but for anyone who is not 

 afraid of roughing it a bit, or of the hard hill-work, 

 it is a fine country, and in my opinion one or two 



