564 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



Central Asia, and the north of Africa, including Madeira and 

 the Canary islands. They are well characterized by a plain 

 unmottled plumage with some rich bands on the flanks, and, as 

 Blyth remarks, they have the desert-coloring in some degree. 

 They affect rocky and hilly ground, in preference to cultivated 

 lands, and associate more or less in coveys. Gray makes a sub- 

 family CaccabincE of this and Ammo per due, but rather strangely 

 joins with them Tetraogallus and Lerwa. Bonaparte retains the 

 generic name of Perdix for this genus, as it was undoubtedly 

 the Perdix of the Ancients. 



820. Caccabis chukor, Gray. 



Perdix, apud Gray, Hardw., ill. Ind. Zool. 1. pi. 54 — Blyth, 

 Cat. 1503 — Gould, Cent. Him. Birds, pi. 71 — P. groeca, var. of 

 several authors — Chukor, H. 



The Chukor Partridge. 



Descr. — Plumage above pale bluish or olive ashy, washed with 

 a rufous tinge ; lores black, and a white band behind the eye ; 

 ear-coverts rufous ; wings reddish ashy, the coverts tipped with 

 buff, and the primaries narrowly edged with the same ; tail ashy 

 on the central feathers, the laterals tinged with rufous ; face, chin, 

 and throat, fulvous or rufous, surrounded by a black band which 

 begins at the eye, and forms a sort of neck-lace round the throat ; 

 below this the neck and breast are ashy, changing to buff on the 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts ; Hanks of the breast and belly 

 beautifully banded, each feather being ashy at the base, with 

 two large black bands, the terminal one tipped with fine maronne, 

 and the space between the bands creamy white. 



Bill red ; irides yellowish white ; legs and feet red. Length 

 15 to 16 inches ; extent 24 ; wing 6| ; tail 3^ ; tarsus If ; bill 

 at front 1 ; weight 18 oz. to 1^ lb. 



The female closely resembles the male, but is slightly smaller, 

 and wants the spurs. 



This fine Partridge is so very closely allied to Caccabis groeca 

 of the South of Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, that it has 

 been considered to be a climatic variety of that species, but most 

 systematists keep it distinct. It appears to differ in the less ashy 



