38 . THE CHUKOR. 



fields. This may probably be owing to their comparatively 

 fewer numbers, as I have observed that many others of the 

 feathered race are much shyer and more suspicious of man 

 when rare, than those of the same species in places where more 

 numerous. Their call is a kind of chuckling, often continued 

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

 ed indiscriminately at various intervals of the day, but most 

 generally towards evening. 



" The Chukor feeds on grain, roots, seeds, and berries : when 

 caught young it soon becomes tame, and will associate readily 

 with domestic poultry. 



" From the beginning of October, Chukor-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 any thing of the kind in the hills. About 

 some of the higher villages, ten or a dozen brace may be bagg- 

 ed in a few hours. Dogs may be used or not, at the dis- 

 cretion of the sportsman ; they are not at all necessary, and 

 if at all wild, are more in the way than otherwise." 



Dr. Scully remarks : — 



" The Chukor is common in certain parts of the hills round 

 the valley of Nepal, at elevations of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, 

 from March to October. It frequents rounded grassy hills, 

 where the small nallas are fringed with bushes, and where there 

 is no forest. In such localities, especially near patches of culti- 

 vation, and on bits of stony ground, flocks of Chukor are sure 

 to be found. About the end of October the birds descend the 

 hills, and assemble on the confines of the warmer valleys for 

 the winter, where they can feed in the rice fields which have 

 been reaped, in fields of growing corn, &c." 



They are very pugnacious birds, and in the spring I have 

 repeatedly come across pairs of cocks fighting desperately and 

 quite oblivious of everything else. I do not know that they 

 are ever kept in India for fighting, but Dr. Scully says : — 



" Chukor seem to abound in all the hills which surround the 

 plains of Kashgharia on the north, west and south. In the 

 winter the birds seem to come down to lower elevations than 

 they frequent in summer ; numbers are then caught and brought 

 into Yarkand and Kashghar for sale. 



" This species is rather prized by the Yarkandis on account 

 of its fighting propensities. I have seen some battles between 

 Chukor which I kept — not for fighting I need scarcely say— 

 the birds appearing to be decidedly pugnacious." 



On this same subject Dresser remarks : — 



" Like the Greek Partridge, it is extremely pugnacious and 

 quarrelsome, especially in the spring of the year ; and it is 



* Mr. Wilson perhaps forgot that everybody cannot walk 30 miles in a day over 

 the worst ground, and come in as fresh as a lark, as he could. As a rule, if you want 

 to make a, good bag, ten to twenty brace of Chukor, it is very hard work. — A. O, H. 



