134 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



Our quarry to-day was to be the chakor, a fine 

 big partridge, very similar to the "Frenchman" 

 at home. The peculiarity of this partridge is that 

 when alarmed he generally tries to escape by 

 running uphill, which a pair of very strong legs 

 enable him to do at a pace that defies the sportsman 

 with a gun. It is only by approaching chakor 

 from above, or on the level when their retreat uphill 

 is cut off, that they can be induced to rise. For 

 this reason they are pre-eminently birds to be 

 driven. Generations of practice have made Chit- 

 ralis adepts at bringing these birds in the required 

 direction, and almost every village has its well- 

 known beats, the management of which is under- 

 stood to a nicety. For the Mehtar's drives, every 

 able-bodied man in the village has to turn out, 

 and though he receives no payment, or even his 

 day's victuals, it would never occur to him to 

 regard the duty as a hardship. His ancestors 

 have done the same, and in no country in the 

 world are people more iron-bound by custom than 

 they are here. 



The chakor had already left the cultivated fields, 

 as they usually do in the early morning, and were 

 beginning their climb upwards when they found 

 their progress barred by stops that had been 

 posted a few hundred feet up, and were now in 

 line slightly above us. 



