It does not appear to have ever been obtained in Sikhim
or in the hills further cast.
Outside our limits, it spreads throughout the northern ranges,
the so-called Karakorum and Kuen-lucn, and right across Kashgar
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 Prjcvalsky it is replaced in the South Kokonor
mountains, Northern Tibet and the Tsaidam Plains, by a
distinct species, C. magna, 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 throughout
Eastern Turkestan, almost to the shores of the Caspian,
throughout Afghanistan,'!' Beluchistan, Persia, Mesopotamia,
Asia Minor and Palestine, in the neighbourhood of Constantinople
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.
T H E CIIUKOR 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 Prjcvalsky 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, Prjcvalsky ... 150 22 0 7'5—7*7 4'25—4'9 I 03—I'l 1*6—17
Chukor, Scully ... 151 22'8 665 42 ri 175
„ Hume ... 1575 23-0 675 49 12 19
And T 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
Punjab and Siihuddin, in Wakhau, they are specially abundant, and the people there
hawk them."
THE CIIUKOR. 35
Ladakh and the Karakorum Plateaux, or in utterly barren rocky
ranges, like those of the Mckran and Arabian coasts, where
the abomination of desolation seems to reign enshrined.
In one place it faces a noon-day temperature of 1500 Farh. ;
in another braves a cold, about day-break, little above_ zero ;
here it thrives where the annual rainfall exceeds 100 inches,
and there flourishes where it is practically nil.
But all these differences in physical environment affect
appreciably the size and colour of" the species ; and hence the
numerous races which, under a variety of names (rupicola,
altaica, sinaica,pallcsccns, pitbescens, arenarius,pallidus, &c), have
been at one time or another elevated to the rank of species.
Broadly speaking (for any number of intermediate forms
occur, corresponding to intermediate sets of conditions), where
vegetation is plentiful and the temperature moderate, the birds
are dark, rich coloured and of medium size ; where the temperature
is low, and of course vegetation scant or wanting, there
the colours are extremely pale and size large ; while amid
the glowing inferno of the desert hills of Arabia, the size is
small and the plumage overspread with a desert hue.
Birds of almost every shade of colour might possibly, as
Dresser asserts on the faith of Severtsov and Prjevalsky, be
found in the same tract, if that tract was sufficiently large
and sufficiently diversified in physical characters and climate ;
but it is missing the whole lesson that this species reads us,
to suppose, as Dresser seems to do, that these differences are
individual, instead of being, as they are, strictly local and the
result of local conditions.
It is doubtless to its unusual capacity for modification
under varying conditions of elevation, temperature and climate,
that the extraordinary range of this species is due.
In the outer ranges of the Himalayas, grassy knolls in the
neighbourhood of straggling cultivation are perhaps their
favourite resorts ; and in such places, though they run rapidly
and far at first, fly swiftly, and carry off a good deal of shot
and lastly fly away to considerable distances, very good sport
may be obtained with them, if only you are accompanied by good
markers, and have a steady old dog to retrieve wounded birds.
October is the best month, I think, for Chukor-shooting on
the lower ranges, as there the young are by that time almost
as strong on the wing as the old birds, and are then tenderer,
fatter, and better eating than at any other time. Old Chukor,
even cooked gipsy fashion, are at best but poor eating, dry
and, even though hung till gamey, still not tender ; but the
birds of the year killed in October, properly kept and properly
cooked, are really excellent.
In October, the birds keep in coveys of from ten to fifteen,
or even more. A covey marked down, you go to look them
up. Sometimes you walk, and walk seeing nothing of them :