36 THE CHUKOR. 



they have squatted ; and the first you see of them is one 

 rising from behind some stone close at your feet. At the 

 first shot they rise with a whir all round, and sweeping away 

 down the hill-side in all directions, alight, generally widely 

 separated, on the sides of the hills all round, and immediately 

 commence calling vigorously to each other. You will hardly 

 have got more than one (or two with a foul shot) with the 

 second barrel ; but if your men have marked the birds pro- 

 perly, and you do not mind hard trudging, you may, having 

 broken up the covey, proceed to walk up and bag almost 

 every single bird. More commonly, as you approach the spot 

 where the covey has been marked, and long before you 

 are within shot, you see the little red-brown birds (as they 

 look) scuttling along at a tremendous pace in front. You 

 push on, if the ground is decent running smartly, and generally 

 get near enough to some of the hinder ones to flush and get 

 shots at them and raise some of the rest ; but in this case pro- 

 bably not above half the covey : the foremost ones, who are over 

 the brow of the hill, not rising at your shots, but only run- 

 ning on all the harder. Those you have flushed, and which have 

 been marked, can then be followed up and accounted for. Birds 

 thus separated, and alighting after a good flight, do not usually 

 run much, and often lie like stones, rising when you are quite 

 close to them from precisely the spot where they alighted. 



The remainder of the covey must then be looked for, viz., at 

 the bottom of the hill down which they escaped, and working 

 upwards. And here two or three steady dogs are very useful ; for 

 Chukor will run up hill quite as quickly as most sportsmen can 

 toil up, and by setting the dogs on to press them, they rise and 

 come down superb over-head shots, two or three of which, if 

 fairly hit, put one, for that day at any rate, in the best of humours 

 with oneself and the world in general. At all times the Chukor 

 flies strong and fast, but when flushed by dogs a hundred 

 yards or so above you, he sweeps down in a style that leaves 

 nothing (except perhaps a drag) to be desired. 



At times you may get coveys in September, especially in 

 the morning, in standing corn, and then they will often lie well, 

 rising in ones and twos here and there, like English Partridges 

 in thick turnips ; but their flight is much stronger and sharper 

 than that of the Partridge, and they afford proportionally better 

 sport. 



Although bare grassy hills, interspersed with a little culti- 

 vation, are, I think, their favourite haunts, I have often found 

 them on hill-sides thickly studded with rocks and bushes ; 

 and in such situations they lie better and run less, and six or 

 seven brace may be killed in less than an hour, besides pro- 

 bably a Kalij or two, and not improbably a Barking-deer, who, 

 jumping up, like a Roe-deer, out of a tussock of grass as you 

 step into it, is rolled over, hare-like, with a charge of No. 4. 



