Caccabis chukar, J. E. Gr.
820. :- Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 564 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 213 ; Game Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 33.
THE CHUKOR PARTRIDGE.
Chukor, Hin.
Length, 14.25 to 15.75; expanse, 21.5 to 23.25; wing, 6.25 to 6.8 ; tail, 4 to 4.9; tarsus, 1.6 to 1.9 ; bill from gape, 0.94 to 1.2 ; weight, 19 to 27 oz.
Length, 13.0 to 14.4; expanse, 20 to 21.3; wing, 5.9 to 6.5 ; tail 3.3 to 4.1 ; tarsus, 1.55 to 1.75 ; bill from gape, 0.94 to 1.1 ; weight, 13 to 19 oz.
Bill crimson to deep coral-red, occasionally dusky on the cul¬ men; irides yellowish or reddish-brown; legs and feet pale reddish.
Plumage above pale-bluish or olive-ashy, washed with a rufous tinge ; lores black, and a white band behind the eye ; ear-coverts rufous ; wings reddish-ashy, the coverts tipped with buff, and the primaries narrowly edged with the same ; tail ashy on the central feathers, the laterals tinged with rufous ; face, chin, -and throat, fulvous or rufous, surrounded by a black band which begins at the eye, and forms a sort of necklace round the throat; below this the neck and breast are ashy, changing to buff on the abdomen and under tail-coverts; the flanks of the breast and belly beautifully banded, each feather being ashy at the base, with two large black bands, the terminal one tipped with fine maroon, and the space between the bands creamy-white.
The female closely resembles the male, but is slightly smaller, and wants the spurs.
Within our limits the Chukor only occurs on the rocky hills that divide Sind from Khelat. It is very common both in the Bolan Pass and on the Khoja Amran Range of mountains in Southern Afghanistan.
I found them breeding near Chaman, about the end of March or early in April. There was no nest; the eggs were deposited on the ground, in a depression under a bush. I never found more than eight eggs, but the Afghans asserted that they frequently lay twenty, and I have seen a hen with quite that number of chicks ; whether they were all her own or not, I cannot say. The eggs are somewhat peg-topped shape, of a pale stony color, speckled and blotched with lavender-brown. They average 161 inches in length by 1'4 in breadth.
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