Caccabis chukor (J. E. Gray).
The Chukor.

Caccabis chukor (J. E. Gr.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 564; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 820.

The Chukor breeds throughout the Himalayas (by preference where there are grassy hills and cultivated fields) from Nepal to Afghanistan, and thence throughout the ranges that under various names run down from Attock to the sea dividing the Punjab and Sind from Afghanistan and Khelat. It also breeds in the Salt Range. In these hills and mountain-chains its range is from the level of the plains to about 11,000 feet, but a paler form, from Ladak, is found and breeds, I believe, at much greater elevations.

They lay in April, May, and June, a good deal according to elevation, and I have eggs taken by Mr. Wilson in Thibet at an elevation of 16,000 feet on the 29th of July. 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 similarly-situated rock barely shaded by tufts of drooping fern.

I have taken many nests, but never found more than twelve eggs in any nest, 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 makes the following note on the nidification of this species in the neighbourhood of Pind Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt Range; -

" Lay 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 Gurhwal Mr. Frederic Wilson writes:- "The Chukor breeds at all elevations, from 4000 to 5000 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 Thibet. The nests may be found in cultivated fields, on grassy hill-sides, stony ravines, almost everywhere, except in forest or amongst precipitous rocks. They are (like 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 middle of June. The eggs are from seven to twelve or fourteen, sharply pointed, dirty white, minutely powdered with light brown. Some are spotted and blotched with the same."

Dr. Scully tells us that in Nepal "it breeds from May to June, usually at an elevation of about 6000 feet. On the 5th June a nest of the Chukor was found at Kakni Powah; it was on the ground under the edge of a rock, and well sheltered by ferns and small bushes. The nest was a mere pad of grass and leaves, and contained seven nearly fresh eggs, which were neatly arranged, six in a circle, with the small end pointing inwards, and the seventh egg filled up the centre."

Colonel Biddulph remarks that in Gilgit the Chukor is " very common. In summer it breeds at all elevations from 5000 to 10,000 feet."

Major Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing of Afghanistan, " I obtained one nest on the 16th of June."

And Lieut. H. E. Barnes, also writing of Afghanistan, remarks ;  - " The Chukor is very common on the hills, and in the nullahs at their base, but is rarely seen far out on the plains. They commence to breed about the end of March, or early in April. There is no nest; the eggs are deposited on the ground in a depression under a bush. I have never found more than eight eggs ;but the Afghans assert that they often lay 15 or 20."

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. Pegtop and spheroconoidal varieties occur, but these forms are the exceptions in this species, while they are the rule in those of the three species of Francolin. The type of colouring too varies : in one type the ground-colour is pale cafe-au-lait, thickly speckled and spotted with purplish, reddish, or yellowish brown; in another the groundcolour is a pale creamy white or pale isabelline, and the eggs are pretty thickly blotched with pale purplish pink, the spots and Notches 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 Francolin, 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 cafe-au-lait.

The eggs vary in length from 1.55 to 1.9, and in breadth from 1.15 to 1.3; but the average of seventy-six eggs is  1.68 by 1.25.