Than the common partridge, found in large coveys on
the edge of the snow;... one plucked and drawn weighed 5 lbs."; described
by Vigne as "a partridge as large as a hen-turkey"; the original perhaps
of that partridge "larger than a vulture" which formed one of the presents
from an Indian King to Augustus Caesar. [With reference to the large
Tibetan partridge found in the Nan-shan Mountains in the meridian of
Sha-chau by Prjevalsky, M. E. D. Morgan in a note (P. R. Geog. S. ix.
1887, p. 219), writes: "Megaloperdrix thibetanus. Its general name in
Asia is ullar, a word of Kirghiz or Turkish origin; the Mongols call it
hailik, and the Tibetans kung-mo. There are two other varieties of this
bird found in the Himalaya and Altai Mountains, but the habits of life and
call-note of all three are the same."] From the extensive diffusion of the
term, which seems to be common to India, Tibet, and Persia (for the latter,
see Abbott in J. R. G. S. XXV. 41), it is likely enough to be of Mongol
origin, not improbably Tsokhor, "dappled or pied." (Kovalevsky, No.
2196, and Strahlenberg's Vocabulary; see also Ladak, 205; Moorcr. I.
313, 432; Jerdan's Birds of India, III. 549, 572; Dunlop, Hunting in
Himalaya, 178; J. A. S. B. VI. 774.)
The chakor is mentioned by Baber (p. 282); and also by the Hindi poet
Chand (Ras Mala, I. 230, and Ind. Antiquary, I. 273). If the latter
passage is genuine, it is adverse to my Mongol etymology, as Chand lived
before the Mongol era.
The keeping of partridges for the table is alluded to by Chaucer in his
portrait of the Franklin, Prologue, Cant. Tales:
"It snewed in his hous of mete and drinke,
Of alle deyntees that men coud of thinke,
After the sondry sesons of the yere,
So changed he his mete and his soupere.
Full many a fat partrich hadde he in mewe,
And many a breme and many a luce in stewe."
CHAPTER LXI.
OF THE CITY OF CHANDU, AND THE KAAN'S PALACE THERE.
And when you have ridden three days from the city last mentioned, between
north-east and north, you come to a city called CHANDU,[NOTE 1] which was
built by the Kaan now reigning. There is at this place a very fine marble
Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men
and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all
executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and
astonishment.[NOTE 2]
Round this Palace a wall is built, inclosing a compass of 16 miles, and
inside the Park there are fountains and rivers and brooks, and beautiful
meadows, with all kinds of wild animals (excluding such as are of
ferocious nature), which the Emperor has procured and placed there to
supply food for his gerfalcons and hawks, which he keeps there in mew.
