THE CHUKOR. 37 



Very different is the shooting in Lahul, Spiti and the bare 

 plains and hills of Ladakh ; the birds are much fewer in 

 numbers, are found in smaller coveys, and are either, if they 

 have never previously been shot at, very tame, running in 

 front of you within easy shot, and only rising when your 

 men throw stones at them, or so wary, where they know what 

 guns are, and flying so far when flushed, that it is impossible 

 to get any sport out of them, though you may every now and 

 then bag a single bird for mess purposes. 



The Chukor is a very noisy bird, repeating constantly in a 

 sharp, clear tone, that may be heard for a mile or more through 

 the pure mountain air, his own well-applied trivial name. 

 Like other game birds, they call most in the mornings and 

 evenings ; but even when undisturbed, they may be heard call- 

 ing to each other at all hours of the day ; and very soon after 

 a covey has been dispersed, each individual member may 

 be heard proclaiming his own and anxiously enquiring after 

 all his fellows' whereabouts. The tone varies. First he says, 

 " I'm here, I'm here ;" then he asks " Who's dead ? Who's 

 dead ;" and when he is informed of the untimely decease of his 

 pet brother and favourite sister, or perhaps his eldest son and 

 heir, he responds, " Oh lor ! Oh lor !" in quite a mournful tone. 



They are, I think, almost exclusively vegetarians ; seeds and 

 grain and quantities of small stones are, in most cases, the 

 contents of their gizzards. I have examined numbers with- 

 out ever finding any traces of insects ; but Mr. Hodgson 

 remarks that the gizzards of some young birds that he dis- 

 sected contained " scaley insects" (wood-lice I suppose), and in 

 two or three cases I find that others have noted "ants," 

 " small insects," " grubs," as forming part of the food of speci- 

 mens they examined. 



Mountaineer says : — 



" In our part of the hills the Chukor is most numerous in 

 the higher inhabited districts, but is found scattered over all 

 the lower and middle ranges. In summer they spread them- 

 selves over the grassy hills to breed, and about the middle of 

 September begin to assemble in and around the 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 few 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, where 

 numerous, sometimes to the number of forty or fifty, or 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 prefer the grassy hill sides to the cultivated 



