me the eggs out of a nest which he found on the 29th July at
this elevation.
They lay, according to climate and elevation, from April to
August.
The nest, composed of a little grass or a few leaves, at
times laid on the flat surface of the ground, at others in a slight
depression, natural or scraped by the birds, is placed often in
fields, often under the shelter of some tuft of grass or dwarf
bush on a grassy hill-side, occasionally under some similarlysituated
rock barely shaded by tufts of drooping fern.
Once I found ten eggs, in Lahul, in a perfectly bare saucershaped
depression in fine shale between two large stones.
Occasionally I have seen a pretty substantial pad-nest of this
species.
I have taken many nests, but never found more than twelve
eggs in any one, and, according to my own experience, should
certainly say that eight to ten were the usual number; others,
however, seem to have found more.
Mr. W. Theobald, speaking of the nidification of this species
in the Salt Range, says :—
" Lays in April and May ; eggs, twelve. Shape varies
from ovato-pyriform to blunt ovato-pyriform. Colour, yellowish
white or brownish cream colour, faintly ringed and spotted with
tan colour. Nest, a few leaves on ground under bushes."
From Garhwal Mr. Wilson, writes :—" The Chukor breeds at
all elevations, from 4,000 or 5,000 feet on the lower hills to
12,000 or 13,000 feet on our side of the Snowy Ranges, and to
16,000 feet beyond, and in Tibet. The nests may be found in
cultivated fields, on grassy hill-sides, stony ravines, almost
everywhere, except in forest or amongst precipitous rocks.
They arc Hike those of all the rest of our game birds) holes
scraped in the ground. In the lower hills it begins to lay in
April, in the higher in May ; and I have found fresh-laid eggs in
the middle of June, and at the highest elevations, at quite the end
of July. The eggs are from seven to twelve or fourteen, sharply
pointed, dirty white, minutely powdered with light brown.
Some arc spotted and blotched with the same."
In Nepal, Dr. Scully tells us that :—
" It breeds from May to June, usually at an elevation of
about 6,000 feet. On the 5th June a nest of the Chukor was
found at Kakin Powah : it was on the ground, under the
edge of a rock, and well sheltered by ferns and small bushes.
The nest was a nice pad of grass and leaves, and contained
seven nearly fresh eggs, which were neatly arranged, six in a
circle, with the small ends pointing inwards, and the seventh egg
filled up the centre."
He adds :—" In the hills bounding the plains of Kashgharia
on the south, at elevations of from 6,000 to over 12,000 feet, the
birds were numerous near willow bushes and streams. On
the 30th August, near Gulgun Sháh, 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 smr.ll end, and glossy. The ground colour
is pale greyish café ah 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 exceptions
in this species, while they arc the rule in those of the
three species of Francolín. The type of colouring, too, varies :
in one type the ground colour is pale café au 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 Francolín, 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 café an lait.
" The eggs vary in length from 1-55 to 1-9, and in breadth
from I T S to i'3; but the average of seventy-six eggs is i ' 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 following
dimensions are all from specimens obtained within our
limits. If I included birds from Persia, Arabia, Cyprus, China
and Yiirkand, the variations would be even greater ; in a male
from near Aden, the wing is only 575-
Males.—Length, I4'25 to 1575 ; expanse, 21-5 to 23-25 ;
wing, 625 to 6-8 ; tail from vent, 40 to 4-9 ; tarsus, i'6 to 1 9 ;
bill from gape, r o to V2 ; weight, 19 to 27 ozs.
Females.—Length, 130 to 14*4 ; expanse, 200 to 21*3 ; wing,
5-9 to 6-5 ; tail from vent, 3'3 to 4T ; tarsus, 1-55 to 1 7 5 ; bill
from gape. 0'94 to i t ; weight, 13 to 19 ozs.
This is a résumé of more than 50 measurements recorded in
the flesh by myself, or for me by others, and it will be seen how