THE CHUKOR. 4 1 



the 30th August, near Gulgun Shah, at an elevation of about 

 12,500 feet, I found a nest of this species containing only 

 three eggs. The nest was composed of a few leaves and fibres, 

 placed in a slight depression on the ground, and covered over by 

 a bush. One of the eggs is an elongated oval, moderately 

 pointed towards the small end, and glossy. The ground colour 

 is pale greyish cafe a?c lait, spotted all over — except at the 

 point of the small end — with sepia coloured dots ; at the broad 

 end the brown sepia spots are more distinct, and there are a 

 few blotches of the same colour here and there." 



The eggs vary a good deal in size and shape, as well as in 

 type of colouring, but typically they are somewhat elongated 

 ovals, a good deal pointed towards the small end. Peg-top and 

 sphero-conoidal varieties occur, but these forms are the excep- 

 tions in this species, while they are the rule in those of the 

 three species of Francolin. The type of colouring, too, varies : 

 in one type the ground colour is pale cafe azc lait, thickly speckled 

 and spotted with purplish, reddish, or yellowish brown ; in another 

 the ground colour is a pale creamy white or pale isabelline, and 

 the eggs are pretty thickly blotched, streaked, and spotted with 

 pale purplish pink, the spots and blotches being occasionally 

 slightly in relief, as if drops of white paint tinged with purple 

 had been dropped on the egg. The eggs are moderately 

 glossy — more so perhaps than in the Common Francolin, less so 

 than in the Grey Partridge. The common type is that first 

 described, and in some eggs the specklings are so excessively 

 minute, that the eggs, looked at from a little distance, appear a 

 uniform somewhat brownish cafeau lait. 



" The eggs vary in length from 1*5 5 to 1*9, and in breadth 

 from 1 "15 to 1*3 ; but the average of seventy- six eggs is 1*68 

 by 1-25." 



Although females in one locality may be met with as large 

 as males in others, still in any one place the males do average 

 decidedly larger and heavier than the females. 



The birds, as already noticed, vary greatly in size. The follow- 

 ing dimensions are all from specimens obtained within our 

 limits. If I included birds from Persia, Arabia, Cyprus, China 

 and Yarkand, the variations would be even greater ; in a male 

 from near Aden, the wing is only 575. 



Males. — Length, 14*25 to 1575 ; expanse, 21*5 to 23*25 ; 

 wing, 6*25 to 6-8 ; tail from vent, 4*0 to 4*9 ; tarsus, 1*6 to 1*9 ; 

 bill from gape, i*o to 1*2; weight, 19 to 27 ozs. 



Females. — Length, 13-0 to 14*4 ; expanse, 20'0 to 21*3 ; wing*, 

 5*9 to 6*5 ; tail from vent, 3*3 to 4*1 ; tarsus, 1*55 to 175 ; bill 

 from gape. 0*94 to i*i ; weight, 13 to 19 ozs. 



This is a tesume of more than 50 measurements recorded in 

 the flesh by myself, or for me by others, and it will be seen how 



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