34 THE CHUKOR. 



It does not appear to have ever been obtained in Sikhim 

 or in the hills further east. 



Outside cur limits, it spreads throughout the northern ranges, 

 the so-called Karakorum and Kuen-luen, and right across Kash- 

 gar to the Tian Shan, throughout which it occurs. Further 

 east, it probably occupies the greater part of Chinese Tibet, 

 Southern Mongolia, and the mountainous parts of Northern 

 China as far east as Chefoo, and as far south, according to 

 Swinhoe, as the northern bank of the Upper Yangtsee ; but 

 according to Prjevalsky it is replaced in the South Kokonor 

 mountains, Northern Tibet and the Tsaidam Plains, by a 

 distinct species, C. magna y which has black lores like saxatilis, a 

 double neck band, the outside one reddish like the ear streak, 

 and a very large wing.* 



Eastwards it appears to occur in suitable localities through- 

 out Eastern Turkestan, almost to the shores of the Caspian, 

 throughout Afghanistan^ Beluchistan, Persia, Mesopotamia, 

 Asia Minor and Palestine, in the neighbourhood of Constanti- 

 nople and in Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete and many, if not all, the 

 islands of the Greek Archipelago. It also probably occurs 

 throughout Arabia, as it has been sent from several places on 

 the Arabian coast, on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, 

 from near Aden, and from the Peninsula of Sinai and other 

 neighbouring localities inland. 



Lastly, like the Chinese Francolin in the Mauritius, the 

 present species is said to have been introduced at an early 

 period into St. Helena ; but I am not aware that the fact of 

 its occurrence there has been verified in recent times, or that 

 the exact species has ever been ascertained by a competent 

 ornithologist. 



The Chukor may be found in different localities from sea 

 level, as in Southern Sind and Beluchistan, to an elevation 

 of at least 16,000 feet, as in Ladakh and Tibet. 



It will be found in comparatively well-wooded, watered, 

 and cultivated hills, as throughout the lower, southern or 

 outer ranges of the Himalayas ; in absolute deserts, like those of 



* Although Prjevalsky does not seem aware of the fact, it is only in the wings 

 that his magna exceeds the dimensions of fine Chukor. I give below his 

 dimensions and those of a male in my museum, killed and measured by Scully, 

 at Yarkand, and of another shot by me here in a valley below Simla : — 



Length. Expanse. Wing. Tail. Bill from gape. Tarsus. 



Magna, Prjevalsky ... 150 220 7'5— 77 4*25— 4'9 103—1-1 I '6— 17 



Chukor, Scully ... 15-1 22*8 6-65 42 ri 175 



Hume ... 1575 23*0 675 49 12 19 



And I have several others from other localities quite as large as Scully's bird. 



+ Not merely in Afghanistan proper, but in all the outlying dependencies of this 

 and Kashmir. Biddulph writes that he met with it in Gilghit and Chitral ; and 

 again he writes : "In all the hills south and west of Turkestan, up to 12,000 feet 

 at any rate, if not higher, the Chukor is very common. In the valley between 

 Punjah and Sirhuddin, in Wakhan, they are specially abundant, and the people there 

 hawk them." 



