9396 Notices of' Books. 



with the least trouble in large cages, the bottoms of which, instead of 

 being solid, are made of bars of wood or iron wire, so that, the cages 

 being put out on the grass, the birds may feed though the interstices. 

 The eggs which have been found by travellers are about the size of 

 those of the turkey, but, like those of the grouse, are of a more length- 

 ened form ; their ground colour clear light olive, sparingly doited over 

 with small light chesnut spots." — P. 550. 



" 77te Chukor Partridge (Caccabis chukor). — In our part of the 

 hills (■^. e., in the North-western Himalayas), the chuckore is most 

 numerous in the higher inhabited districts, but is found scat- 

 tered over all the lower and middle ranges. In summer they 

 spread themselves over the grassy hills to breed, and about the middle 

 of September begin to assemble in and around tlie cultivated fields 

 near the villages, gleaning at first in the grain fields which have been 

 reaped, and afterwards, during winter, in those which have been sown 

 with wheat and barley for the ensuing season, preferring the wheat. 

 A itiw straggling parties remain on the hill-sides, where they breed, as 

 also in summer many remain to perform the business of incubation in 

 the fields. In autumn and winter they keep in loose scattered flocks, 

 very numerous, sometimes to the number of forty or fifty, and even a 

 hundred. In summer, though not entirely separated, they are seldom 

 in large flocks, and a single pair is often met with. They are' partial 

 to dry stony spots, never go into forest, and in the lower hills seem to 

 preler the grassy hill-sides to the cultivated fields. This may pro- 

 bably be owing to their comparatively fewer numbers, as I have ob- 

 served that many others of the feathered race are much"^hyer and 

 more suspicious of man when rare, than those of the same species 

 in places more numerous. Their call is a kind of chuckling, often 

 continued for some time, and by a great many birds at once. It is 

 uttered indiscriminately at various intervals of the day, but most gene- 

 rally towards evening. The chuckore feeds on grain, roots, seeds and 

 berries ; when caught young it becomes quite lame, and will associate 

 readily with domestic poultry. From the beginning of October 

 chuckore-shooting, from the frequency and variety of the shots, and 

 the small amount of fatigue attending it, is, to one partial to such 

 sport, perhaps the most pleasant of anything of the kind in the hills. 

 About some of the higher villages ten or a dozen brace may be bagged 

 in a few hours. Dogs may be used or not at the discretion of the 

 sportsman ; they are not at all necessary, and if at all wild are more 

 in the way than otherwise. ' The male,' says Major Brown, ' is very 

 bold, and is tamed for the purpose of fighting. In a domesticated 



