THE CIIUKOR.
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 properly,
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 probably
not above half the covey : the foremost ones, who arc over
the brow of the hill, not rising at your shots, but only running
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
flics 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 cultivation,
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 probably
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.
THE CIIUKOR. 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 calling
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 arc, 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 without
ever finding any traces of insects; but Mr. Hodgson
remarks that the gizzards of some young birds that he dissected
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 specimens
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 themselves
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