6o THE KYAH OR SWAMP PARTRIDGE.
" It frequents," says Colonel Tickell, "wild places—a sandy
soil with thickets of the jungle rose, babool, and other thorns,
alternating with beds of reeds and elephant grass, and always
near water. It resorts also to such cultivation as lies within
half a mile or so of the river, such as ' surson' (mustard),
'urhur' (dal), and 'chunna' (gram), but shuns paddy fields,
grass meadows, or tree jungle. Very early of a morning, or in
the evening, it may be stalked on foot and potted ; but the
proper way of shooting this bird is to penetrate the thickets
and ' nul bun,' or reed jungle, on elephants, and with a large
force of beaters, when the ' khyr' affords as good a day's sport
as may be had in a pheasant covert in England. When first
beaten up it rises freely, but well within shot, with a loud flurry
and often a shrill cackle, and its size makes it an easy shot when
the young sportsman becomes used to its sudden flush, and
his elephant ceases to start at the sound. If missed, it does not
fly far, but it is almost impossible to force it to take wing again ;
and a winged bird runs at such a rate, doubling and skulking in
the covert, that without good dogs it is hopeless to search for it.
" Early of a morning and in the evening, during the cold
season, the shrill calls of these birds resound along the shores of
the river. The notes are so like those of the Grey Partridge
that the slight difference which exists can hardly be described
in writing. There arc the same preliminary 'chucks' and the
same syllables, something like ckuckeeroo, clutckceroo, chuckeeroo;
but a tolerably observant ear can at once distinguish the crow
of the two birds. The Grass Chukor is, I should say, much
the more clamorous of the two. They call to each other,
constantly repeating the above strain, till about 8 or 9 A.M.,
when the sun has dried up the grass. It is a cheery and not unmelodious
sound, and familiar enough to the traveller of former
days, as his bujjra or pinnace lay moored to the bank, in the
gathering twilight, or the first grey 'gloaming' of the morning
—when the early breeze off the glorious river wooed him to
hasten through his matutinal coffee and cigar, and range, gun
in hand, along the shore ; or after the diurnal voyage, when
fading daylight casts long shadows on the stream, he sat lounging
on the poop, letting the tiny wreaths from his Manilla melt
into the purple eve, and watching the cooking fires of the
crew scattered along the bank, sitting and musing till night fell
around and the birds' voices were still.
" Near Pyntec, a very favourite beat for the Grass Chukor,
was a swampy tract of some fifty or sixty acres, covered with
clumps of elephant grass, and surrounding a deep, muddy
pond, or 'nasce,' about 300 yards in length and 150 in breadth,
which was remarkable for the multitude of crocodiles its
turbid waters sheltered.
" A writer in the Bengal Sporting Magazine, quoted by Jerdon,
says that in the rains, when its usual haunts are flooded, the
THE KYAH OR SWAMP PARTRIDGE, 61
Grass Chukor betakes itself to the fields, hedgerows, and bush
jungle, and at this time affords good sport even to the sportsman
on foot; and that in some localities, when flooded, the ' kyah'
may be seen flying from tree to tree. Never having visited the
birds' haunts during the rains, I have never seen it driven to
such insessorial habits, but I know they will occasionally, when
calling, perch a little way off the ground on the stalks of reeds
and sometimes on a small bush. Like the Grey Partridge, the
' kyah' is a very pugnacious bird. A writer in the above-named
Magazine says that almost every one examined will be found
scarred and marked with wounds from fighting. It is said also
to drive off the Black Partridge if it comes across it ; but this,
as far as my experience goes, I have not found to be the case,
as I have several times come upon them in the same covert,
and remember one day at Pyntee beating a patch of grass and
making up a tolerably heavy bag out of it with birds of both
species, flushed indiscriminately, and in a manner which showed
they must have been feeding or reposing very near each other.
" For the table the ' khyr' or ' kyah' is not in much repute
amongst the very few who are acquainted with its flavour.
The young, like the young of the Grey Partridge, are tolerably
good, but old ones are dry and hard. However, the writer in
the Bengal Sporting Magazi?ie, already quoted, eulogises the
bird as' bearing the palm for delicacy of flavour and texture in the
meat of all the game birds of India!' 'During the months of
November and December,' continues he, ' it forms an unrivalled
dish for the epicure in gamey flavour, and an additional
inducement to sportsman to fag and find.' I suspect the fagging
and finding are very necessary ingredients to furnish that
renowned sauce of Spartan origin, without which the ' khyr'
would be little esteemed."
Mr. Crippswrites to me:—•
" In the Dacca and Sylhet districts, where I have seen
this species, it was a permanent resident and tolerably
common. Swampy, or at any rate damp, ground, covered
with long grass, brushwood and reeds, is its favourite resort.
Along the banks of the ' Kusiyara' River, in Sylhet, I often used
to shoot it; the banks are covered with long grass and brushwood,
intersected by small khals, and boasting, at intervals, of
occasional patches of mustard or pulse. In the mornings and
evenings the birds used to be found on the outskirts of these
cultivated patches ; on the least alarm they sneak into the
jungles. Very careful stalking is required to ensure a shot.
One of the number is always posted as a sentinel on the top
of some bush. The plan I found to succeed best was to beat
the jungle, and, whenever a bird was flushed, to mark it down and
then beat carefully up to where it had alighted ; it would then
rise within easy range, whereas, if any shot offering is taken, the
chances are that you miss and frighten the birds, so that they will