"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.
