cording to
Cunningham the name is applied in Ladak to the bird sometimes called the
Snow-pheasant, Jerdan's Snow-cock, _Tetraogallus himalayensis_ of Gray.
And it must be the latter which Moorcroft speaks of as "the gigantic
Chukor, much larger 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